The event was organized by the Hunger Project, an NGO whose board of directors reads like a who's who in the world of human rights. The Hunger Project sponsors the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger, a prize that's been awarded since 1987.

This year's prize award is $200,000 and was awarded to four African leaders committed to stopping AIDS. "AIDS kills the farmers in their prime and leaves men in their 70s to tend the farm," said Fitigu Tadesse, Director of the African Region of the Hunger Project and moderator of the panel. "So obviously food production goes down."

Once Jacob discovered she was HIV positive, she founded the Service Health and Development for People Living Positively with HIV/AIDS (SHDEPHA) in Tanzania. She found 15 other HIV-positive people and they decided to start their own organization. The Tanzanian government, Jacob said, gives them great support by paying the group's rent.

Her family, however, did not. "They discriminated against me," she said. In 1993, SHDEPHA registered with the Tanzanian government. They began counseling, outreach and home based care, designed to keep people positive.

"If someone is HIV-positive, we counsel them on how to keep them from spreading it," she said. "If someone is negative, then we counsel them on behavioral change."

Then, her lip quivered and she began to tear up. Jacob, a slim woman in an oversized jacket, opened her mouth and nothing came out. The room was still and the only voice was Tadesse, rubbing Jacob's arm gently and saying, "that's okay" while Jacob folded her hands and stared at the desk in front of her.

"It's taboo to talk about sex," said Tibebe Maco, a nurse in Ethiopia. Maco is the founder of Hiwot HIV/AIDS Prevention, CAre and Support Organization (HAPCSO).

Maco said Ethiopians needed to be more aware of the pandemic. Sexually transmitted diseases are rampant, and people receive treatment for symptoms of AIDS without first getting tested. The effect of the disease is felt hardest on the children, she said.

"One girl began to menstruate at 11 and the kids called her 'spoiled' because they thought she was having sex," Maco said. "She dropped out of school and she could be a prostitute now."

HAPCSO gets its message across using traditional Ethiopian songs and poems.

Jonah Gokova founded a men's forum on gender in his native Zimbabwe. The Padare/Enkundleni Men's Forum is an organization committed to examining and transforming the traditional definitions of masculinity that encourages risky behavior.

"This initiative started as a small group of men," Gokova said. "We wanted to analyze social expectations and create a definition of what it takes to be a man."

Gokova said there was a lot of interest in his organization that meets once a month in 11 branches across the country. He said women have held the fort on gender issues for too long. Men in Zimbabwe, Gokova said, abuse their wives and even though it's illegal, the attitude among men is to be dominant and abusive to prove one's manhood. The wives, he said, don't report every case because the police usually say it's a domestic issue. If they don't, then the husband is locked away for three months, which takes away money from the family.

In the prevalent dominant attitude, the Reverend Bishop Dennis de Jong said, men are unfaithful to their wives and rarely where condoms spreading the disease like wildfire. "In our area," the Reverend said, speaking of Zambia, "we have high unemployment and poverty. People will do anything when they are hungry."

Reverend de Jong said he remembered burying people at a rate of three per day, at the onset of AIDS. "The church has to continue to speak out about evil, be an advocate for the poor, and continue to be a mediator," he said.

His Integrated AIDS Program has taken on initiatives meant to stop what is known in Zambia as "The Slim Disease."

"We teach facts," he said. "People think when they get sick that they have been bewitched and don't have the slim disease." His program includes many initiatives for young people and teens. They start as early as 10, asking 10 year-old kids how many more birthdays would they like to see. If they're teenagers, then they advocate behavioral change through a program called SMART, Sex is for Marriage and AIDS Ruins Teens.

All four recipients said their respective countries are not doing enough to stop AIDS because there are no structures set up. "My government of Zimbabwe seems to think that it'll disappear if we don't talk about it," Gokova said, citing there's too much emphasis on paying back debt to the World Bank instead of paying for retroviral drugs that AIDS patients need.

"Poverty is killing people quickly," Reverend de Jong said.