It Takes 30 Villages: Building Trust in a Clinical Trial

By Martha Henry Because of his own history, Dr. Mompati Mmalane had ideas about how best to introduce a complex clinical trial to communities like Shakawe, a remote village in northwestern Botswana. HIV is no stranger to rural villages. Although the national adult prevalence is 24%, the rate is much higher in some villages. Older adults remember the days before antiretroviral treatment (ART), when Saturdays were crowded with funerals for…

Dr. Mosepele Mosepele: Coming of Age with the Epidemic

By Martha Henry It started in preschool for Mosepele Mosepele. His mother was an Operating Room (OR) nurse in the Mahalapye District Hospital in Botswana. In the morning, she dropped her son off at school on her way to work. If she had an early operation, young Mosepele would sit in an office with a window overlooking the OR. Though only five years old, the boy would watch the surgical…