Nkosi Johnson was only 12 years old when he died after having Aids. He was born with HIV in Johannesburg, South Africa.
At the time he died in 2001 Nkosi was the longest-surviving child born with HIV. On Tuesday, which would have been Nkosi’s 31st birthday, Google is paying tribute to him by having him as their homepage doodle.
Nkosi’s mum was also HIV positive and became too ill to look after him, so he was adopted by a public relations officer from an Aids care centre.
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus and it targets the immune system. It can stop your body from being able to fight infections and disease if treatment isn’t started soon enough.
In 1997, when Nkosi was just eight years old, his name became known when a local primary school near where he lived refused to take him as a pupil. It was because of his infection.
It caused huge political issues for South Africa, which forced changes to the law there. New anti-discrimination policies were put in place and that stopped children being banned from schools based on their health.
After the law changed the school allowed Nkosi in and he started to campaign for other children with Aids.
His step mother also helped him set up Nkosi’s Haven. It’s a non-government organisation helping to support mothers and children whose lives have been impacted by HIV and Aids.
As a result of his campaigning Nkosi became a key-note speaker at the International Aids conference in 2000 when he was just 11.
At the opening event he said: “Care for us and accept us, we are all human beings. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else. Don’t be afraid of us – we are all the same.”
Nkosi died one-year later. Four years after that, to honour his efforts to raise awareness of the disease, the International Children’s Peace Prize was created.
Since Nkosi’s death there have been positive changes in trying to create a more accepting South Africa.
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