She introduced herself to the world with something she called her HIV prayer. "Hello, HIV, you trespasser," Thembi would say. "You are in my body. You have to obey the rules. You have to respect me, and if you don't hurt me, I won't hurt you. You mind your business, I'll mind mine."
Thembi, who died June 5 at the age of 24, lived in Khayelitsha, one of the largest shantytowns in South Africa. In a country with one of the highest AIDS rates in the world, the fact that Thembi was HIV positive made her a statistic. What made her...
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