So, it was an inspiration to read a book entitled A Girl from Kalk Bay by Susan Solomon and to interview the author recently.

Susan describes her commitment to help people with HIV wherever they are around the globe as a passion of hers, and her work in this area, including writing this book, certainly bears this out.

She started her volunteer work in Sydney with ACON moving on from patient to patient. At that time hospitals would not receive HIV-positive patients so most care had to be given in the home. Leaving Sydney, she lived and worked in San Francisco, initially for Project Inform, an early HIV treatment and support agency.

To give you some idea of those early days:

From Chapter 10, page 44:

“On arrival at Project Inform on Market Street, we received updated fact sheets which listed the latest information that was available and that we’d mail out on request. These sheets provided advice to support people from day one of receiving a diagnosis, which at the time was a death sentence. They covered what a patient should discuss with their doctor and what drugs to take for their particular situation.  The sheets also included information about the impact and side-effects of the drugs. This was helpful to people who didn’t understand the disease and were fearful of what to do and how to deal with their particular circumstances.

“The sheets didn’t just address the medical aspects of the disease. They also covered how to deal with a diagnosis, the emotional impact, how to tell family and friends, dealing with work and finances, and where to go for help. We were dealing with people in the prime of their lives, and it was very emotional and traumatic for all concerned.”

Susan was then offered a job running the San Francisco Center for Living in the Castro at the height of the epidemic in the early 90s. The center provided support services and referrals, mostly working with young men who were dying in what should have been the prime of their lives. The center was run with HIV-positive volunteers who gave amazing support and the courage they showed was immense, given they knew they may die themselves in a short time.

Susan and her husband Richard were experienced global travellers and when Richard’s work took them to Southeast Asia, she went along, to Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia. In each place she sought out their HIV services, which were quite hidden, given their often conservative societies. While she started out as a dental hygienist, she soon adapted her skills to do testing, counselling and policy development with governments and HIV organisations, when they existed. She became sought after as a speaker on HIV prevention and care to health workers throughout the region, as most had received little or no training in the area.

With a raised profile, Susan attracted the attention of some corporate sponsors who wanted to do their bit to stem the number of infections. She got companies like Levi Strauss, The Body Shop, Chevron, Standard Chartered Bank, and Unilever to come on board and together they set up the Asia Pacific Business Coalition on AIDS which worked across Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines and even Mongolia. One of her trips, while she was living in Sydney took her to Port Moresby with Dr John Rule from NAPWHA and together they gave workshops to agencies in PNG which had little prior education work done in HIV. In recent years she has volunteered to help assist asylum seekers in Sydney. Her capacity for making a difference for people who are doing it tough, continues.

Susan conducting a women’s empowerment workshop in PNG for NAPWHA in 2019

A Girl from Kalk Bay is an entertaining read, because, while Susan is writing about some serious and at times confronting health issues, her tone is light enough to include humour and lovely anecdotes from her travels with husband Richard. There are also some great coloured photographs to maintain your interest in the journey. I highly recommend this book which is available online at Amazon.