Born: Unknown, South Africa (assumed)
Died: NA
Country most active: South Africa
Also known as: NA
In the 1990s, Gail Johnson adopted three-year-old Nkosi, who was HIV-positive, when his mother could no longer care for him. Johnson had been volunteering at the Johannesburg HIV/AIDS care center Nkosi and his mother were admitted to. Her son later came to international attention in 1997 when Johnson legally challenged a Johannesburg school for refusing to allow her son to enrol because of his HIV status. When they won the case, it forced South African schools to change their policies discriminating against such children. Nkosi became a spokesperson for the cause of HIV-positive mothers and children before he died from AIDS in 2001, when he was just 12 years old.
Johnson continues her son’s legacy with Nkosi’s Haven, which opened in 1999 as a residence for HIV-positive mothers and children, including those orphaned by AIDS. It soon expanded into Nkosi’s Haven Village in Alan Manor, with 17 residential cottages, an infirmary, library, day care, therapy block, kitchen, bakery and leisure block.