Aug 27, 2006 12:49 pm US/Central
Obama Convinces Many Africans To Get HIV Tests
Senator Visiting Nairobi's Kibera Slum, The Poorest Part Of Kenya
by Mike Flannery
(CBS)
You would think he was a rock star with the reception U.S. Sen.
Barack Obama is getting in Africa.
Obama is welcoming the crowds - and trying to spread a message of AIDS awareness.
CBS 2 political editor Mike Flannery is traveling with the senator and has more on how Obama is convincing Africans to get tested for AIDS.
On Sunday, Obama visited the huge
Nairobi slum of
Kibera, notoriously the poorest place in Nairobi and often called the worst slum in Africa. 700,000 people live in Kibera without sewers or clean water and the area literally stinks because of those problems.
Kibera is also a place where AIDS is taking a huge toll. Obama, who got an
HIV test on Saturday with his wife Michelle, on Sunday met with activists and young people to discuss the benefits of abstinence and the need for general AIDS awareness and responsible sexual behavior.
Obama and his wife both tested negative. But unfortunately for all to many people in that part of Kenya, where an estimated one quarter of the population have been infected with HIV, far too many people do not get tested, do not know they're infected and are spreading the disease to others.
As Flannery and his camera operator walked through Kibera, people in that area -- which is hundreds of miles away from where Obama was tested -- already knew Obama had taken an HIV test. And several people said they would go to a clinic as soon as possible to get tested themselves.
Tens of thousands of people have come out to see him, especially those running for office. Obama is indisputably the most popular man in Kenya.
Obama's grandfather was a leader of the country's Luo tribe, which makes up about 11 percent of the population, and his father was a government official, so many people in Kenya feel a special connection to the senator. They see his life story as a cause for hope.
Mike Flannery will have more reports on Obama's trip at 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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