The night was October 13th. The day before on Friday, four Nobel laureates addressed the media at the UN Church Center. They were Amelia Jacob, founder of the Service Health and Development for People Living Positively with HIV/AIDS (SHDEPHA) in Tanzania; Tibebe Maco, a nurse in Ethiopia; Jonah Gokova, who founded a men's forum on gender in his native Zimbabwe, and the Reverend Bishop Dennis de Jong of Zambia, whose initiatives addresses teens and AIDS.

They were all honored and split $200,000 between them. Maco addressed the September 11 attacks.

"You have heard the facts, seen the pictures and know about the devastating impact this plague is having on Ethiopia and all of Africa," he said. "But numbers alone do not tell the story. Like those who have been affected by the tragedy, which took place here a month ago, out world has been changed forever. In our case, the tragedy is still growing."

Joan Holmes, President of the Hunger Project, called AIDS the result of a crisis of leadership. "Let us be clear," Holmes said. "For African leaders, the response to this crisis is the supreme test of their commitment to the well-being of their people."

The keynote speaker was Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, who was recently named chair of the transitional working group for the establishment of the Global AIDS and Health Fund. He began by quoting a question that was raised to him at an international symposium in Tokyo.

"What returns shall the tax payers get by contributing to the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria?"

Dr. Kiyonga said he was surprised at the question because he didn't expect it. Then he said upon watching CNN and BBC, he realized how AIDS/TB and malaria received little coverage.

"The gap in information flow should be closed quickly if we hope to succeed in our fight against these diseases and the impact they are causing," he said. "There is now a global crisis being caused by these diseases. AIDS has killed 22 million people around the world. Today more than 36 million live either with HIV or AIDS. Last year more people contracted HIV and more died of AIDS than in any other year.

"Ninety-five percent of these lives are in the developing world and the vast majority suffer and die in the prime of their lives. The AIDS pandemic has orphaned more than 13 million children most of them in sub Saharan Africa. By 2010, this number is expected to rise to 36 million.

"The three communicable diseases-HIV/AIDS. TB and malaria-kill 5.4 million people a year and debilitate 250 million others in developing countries. The effects of instability, conflict and environmental degradation do not respect boundaries. The high resistance against the known drugs to treat malaria and TB means these diseases can quickly engulf the whole world."

Dr. Kiyonga said that he believed there were many people as ignorant of the global impact of AIDS as his "Japanese friend" was. He called for a global response in making cash contributions to his fund.