Gallimore speaks of the obstacles to overcome when trying to speak the unspeakable, to comprehend the incomprehensible, that is genocide. Her next book involves literary criticism as well as sociolinguistic and anthropological methods, drawing upon data collected in Rwanda as well as archival data and transcripts of the testimonies of women who survived the genocide. She has been working with an organization in Rwanda called ABASA, a group made of rape survivors. (Abasa is a Kinyrwanda word that means “we are all the same.”) Interviewing women from this group, Gallimore hopes to give voice to their stories and identify their various needs so that Step Up can try to address them.

The team has completed phase one of the project, which involved establishing the administrative structure for TICIPS and conducting a small-scale clinical trial of the safety of the South African plant Sutherlandia in healthy adults. The next step will involve trying to find scientific evidence about the plant’s safety.

The outcomes of this study will define a process by which these plants can be studied and evaluated. Folk hopes that others will be able to carry on with similar studies to begin to learn and inform the public about these plants.

Twenty million people have been infected with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the availability of drugs and health care is far below what is needed to stop the pandemic. Responding to this problem, scientists from MU and the University of the Western Cape have joined forces. Their relationship is built on trust and about 400 visits back and forth over the past two decades.

Some of the challenges of this project have included building trust with traditional healers, but the American team members have benefited from the deep trust that has developed between the South African colleagues and traditional healers. Folk’s team has budgeted for compensation, preferred in the form of cattle, for traditional healers.

The answer to why Sub-Saharan Africa is known is the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic is complex. But Folk states that while “we don’t know all the answers, in part the apartheid government worked to destroy the traditional culture and society of South Africa,” which clearly exacerbated the problem.