Faith healer. (Elizabeth Musaba in person).

WHEN ELIZABETH MUSABA WAS A LITTLE girl growing up in Zambia, she used to think that her life was different from the lives of all the other little girls around her. "I used to think that there must be something more that I was born to do," she says, "and I'm still looking for that something."

She may still be looking, but her search has already taken her on a stunning ride from convent school student to AIDS activist in South Africa, the epicenter of the worldwide pandemic. Along the way, she's worn many hats: doctor, educator, researcher, wife, mother of four, and champion of women's rights.

In 1983, just three years into a medical career that took her from the former Czechoslovakia to England and back to Zambia, Musaba saw her first case of AIDS. Since then, she's seen thousands of people succumb to the disease. "As I grew older I've been asking myself, `What's missing? Why are people continuing to die from a preventable disease?'"

She concluded that too many resources went into curative work and not enough went toward prevention. Her answer was to start the Empilisweni Woodlands AIDS Education and Training Centre in King William's Town in the Eastern Cape, South Africa's poorest province. Musaba is executive director of the 3-year-old center, which serves mainly women.

"Women are dying like flies because of their lack of information," Musaba says, acknowledging that women bear the brunt of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. "In Africa alone this year, we're going to see 2 million lives lost to AIDS. And most of those are people who are being taken in the prime of their lives."

Still it wasn't easy to be the voice of AIDS prevention. Although her original plan for Empilisweni--whose name means "healing place"--was for a big health center and treatment clinic, the local women weren't thrilled with the idea.

Instead, they wanted a place to address the hunger and poverty in their community. "We went in there with our big degrees, and they taught us more than we taught them. For them, it's only about survival."

So the center, which serves 21 villages, started micro enterprise projects like beadwork, gardening, and poultry farming. The local women honed their skills on these projects and made a little money and food in the process.

Still, Musaba made sure HIV/ AIDS awareness was a principal part of Empilisweni's mission. Day-long workshops on HIV/AIDS education, as well as counseling and health care, are all available. Part of the challenge Musaba and her coworkers face is that for most Africans, talking about the infection is taboo. "We want them to break the silence. It's a very slow process."

Because it's difficult culturally for women to talk with men about sexual issues, Musaba's husband of 22 years, Malizo, also a doctor, has recently started leading workshops for men.

As a Catholic, Musaba draws on her faith when the situation seems overwhelming. "Jesus had a healing ministry very similar to what we're trying to do, working with the poor and marginalized," she says. Additionally, she says, there's hope for those who don't heal physically. "There's greater healing they can access, just like that--forgiveness, healing, and redemption. When they do that, people are not only able to die peacefully, but those left behind can also have peace."

Musaba believes that because she's been given plenty of gifts, God expects plenty in return. And she still watches for doors to open in her life: "Whatever opportunities I get, I seize them!" she says with a laugh.

But it's the fundamental things that keep her grounded. "When I become like the women in my project, women who struggle and have never been anywhere, it takes me back to the things that are really important: I'm a human being first and foremost, a woman at that. Everything else is like coats of paint--they can be peeled away."

ELIZABETH MUSABA
AIDS ACTIVIST, DOCTOR, WOMEN'S ADVOCATE

WHAT I MIGHT BE DOING IF I'M NOT AT WORK:
Reading or writing in my journal.

WHAT I'M MOST PROUD OF IN MY WORK:
That people who used to have poor access
to health care now have good, accurate information
and resources.

WHAT SUSTAINS ME DURING DIFFICULT TIMES:
I have some favorite Bible passages--particularly
about Jesus as healer.

IF I WERE PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA:
I'd address violence against women, AIDS
policy, and poverty issues.

ONE THING I LOVE TO DO:
Play with my 10-year-old son.

HEATHER GRENNAN, assistant editor at U.S. CATHOLIC.