Duke Med Student Makes Personal Appeal on World AIDS Day

Mibenge

Chikoti Mibenge is a third-year med student and AIDS orphan from Zambia.

Published November 30, 2010, last updated on June 18, 2021 under Education News

Few people understand what it’s like to lose a parent to AIDS and then, against all odds, pursue a promising career in medicine. Duke medical student and Zambia native Chikoti Mibenge lost her parents when she was 17 and 19 years old. But with the support of family and friends who invested in her future, she has worked hard to live the fairy tale she refers to as the “American dream.” This World AIDS Day, Mibenge is calling on the Duke community to help support several causes that are important to her, one originating in Zambia and one here at Duke.

Defying all odds, Mibenge had a strong support system who helped her excel, eventually bringing her to Duke as a medical student. After completing high school in Zambia, Mibenge was chosen by the Zambian National Committee to represent Zambia in Italy for two years as a United World College Scholar.  With her heart set on coming to the US for college, she was awarded a scholarship to attend Wellesley College where earned a degree in biological chemistry. When she decided to go to medical school, it was Duke that stood out above the rest. 

“I was discouraged by the limited number of international students that received any financial assistance. Duke University made a difference,” said Mibenge. “With the help of fellowships, grants and loans I am finally closer to the end of my very long journey out of Zambia that makes me the physician I always wanted to be.”

According to UNAIDS, an estimated 16 million children under the age of 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. The number of orphans in some sub-Saharan African countries exceeds half a million, and this includes Zambia.  The needs of AIDS orphans are as immediate as their next meal and as extended as access to education, guidance and care through their teenage years.

To mark World AIDS Day tomorrow, Mibenge is making an appeal to the Duke community to help support SOS Children’s Villages Zambia , which over the past 16 years has addressed the needs of orphans and abandoned children, like herself, in Zambia. SOS Children’s Villages Zambia has built schools, social centers, medical centers, a youth facility and vocational training center in Zambia for children from impoverished families and neighborhoods.

“The majority of the children in these programs are orphans without means of living or making it through life,” said Mibenge. “Today, you have the ability to contribute to changing the life of a child that faces the same challenges I did.”

Closer to home, Mibenge is also raising money for the DART Emergency Assistance Care Fund. Started 20 years ago by Dr. John Bartlett, associate director of research at the Duke Global Health Institute, the Care Fund provides emergency assistance funds for patients of the Duke HIV Clinic, such as food, medications, housing, transportation, utility bills and educational materials. On his 50th birthday, Bartlett raised more than $200, 000 to support an endowment, the John Bartlett Endowment for the CARE Fund. Since 2005, more than 2,000 people have received assistance from the fund, but the endowment interest has not been high enough to help over 1,000 persons in great need in the last 2 years.  All donations given to The Care Fund support an endowment to save this emergency assistance fund.  Learn more about the endowment on “Duke DART Board.”

As people all over the world come together to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and its dire impacts on patients and populations, Mibenge’s story reminds us what is possible for families touched by AIDS.  Make a donation to SOS Children’s Villages Zambia or the Duke DART Care Fund today.

 

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