Lisa Lopez Levers
Associate Professor, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Lecturing/Research: Counseling Education; Sustainable HIV/AIDS Abatement Endeavors in Southern Africa: Considering Contextual Factors and Designing Culturally Relevant and Gender-Sensitive Counseling and Education Activities
Host: University of Botswana, Gaborone
August 2003-June 2004

Professor Levers with preschool kids

Humanitarian Efforts Against HIV/AIDS An estimated 33,000 people die from AIDS-related causes each year in Botswana and 190,000 women and 25,000 children are currently living with HIV/AIDS. As a counselor and a humanitarian, Lisa Lopez Levers crossed the Atlantic to help alleviate this epidemic.

Lopez Levers, an assistant professor of education at Duquesne University, received a year-long Fulbright grant to Botswana to teach graduate courses at the University of Botswana's Counselor Education Program and conduct research for her project entitled "Sustainable HIV/AIDS Abatement Endeavors in Southern Africa: Considering Contextual Factors and Designing Culturally Relevant and Gender-Sensitive Counseling and Education Activities."

Professor Levers colleagues

During her grant, Lopez Levers assisted the university in developing a master's counseling program, delivered a keynote speech on the culture of traditional healing in southern Africa and advised students. She also spent time in the local communities conducting research and collaborating with over 15 villages and towns to develop community-based services for children affected by HIV/AIDS, especially for the over 120,000 children who have been orphaned through the disease.

Additionally, Lopez Levers designed the Botswana Integrated Resilient Child and Strengthened Community Project and Registered Trust in Botswana, Counseling for Health International, a group ensuring that resources reach grassroots organizations helping children affected by HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Lopez Levers told the Duquesne University Times that including the local authorities, educators, tribal leaders and traditional healers in the HIV/AIDS discussion and cooperating with them to develop a culturally appropriate method of prevention and treatment is essential for fighting the disease. "The sooner we intervene with children at risk, the greater the possibility becomes that we might prevent serious problems later in life," she said. "If I can assist in preventing such damage, pain and suffering, then I feel that I may have contributed something."

Please contact us if you would like to submit your own story and/or photographs.