Tuesday night I found myself in an open living room, appointed with a crocodile head and plenty of art and offering a twinkling view of Hollywood, among friends and strangers, watching a black man on the small television talk of his incarceration in the same South African prison as Nelson Mandela and the path that got him there and where it has took him since.
Years later, free from prison and apartheid, Patrick Chamusso and his wife Conney found themselves fostering two sisters whose parent died of AIDS. One in five South Africans is HIV positive, making the epidemic here among the fastest expanding in the world. It's daunting, for sure. On their own, the Chamusso's began providing a home for these orphans, some who are personally affected by HIV/AIDS. The Two Sisters "Dropping Center" was born. The center and the Chamussos now care for some 120 children, despite funds so limited Patrick often sleeps on the concrete floor in order for a sick child to have his bed.
Patrick's story as an anti-Apartheid rebel is the subject of the 2006 film "Catch a Fire" with Tim Robbins and directed by Phillip Noyce, whose home we are in on this night. But it's daughter Lucia who has initiated this gathering, that includes Rose McGowan, Lise Edelstein, Jon Sidel, designers Tarina Tarantino and Katy Rodriguez and many others. Rather than be thrown off by the grand complexity of this modern-day plague, Lucia and friends Robbi Chong, singer Deborah Falconer, producers Dana Brockman and Bryan Rabin decided to zero in on a single organization that could benefit from their efforts.
So here we all are tonight for this first meet and greet. Bill Cosby has signed on for a future benefit, and it's up to all of us to bring in our network, talents and energy.
Yes, Africa and AIDS and orphan children, in particular, are causes célèbres in Hollywood. But with an estimated 1.2 million South African children orphaned by AIDS in 2005 alone and only a cost of $1,600USD monthly to cover the monthly budget--food, medical, transport and meager wages--at the Chamusso's Two Sisters nonprofit house, how can it not be?
To learn more or to help (and there's no excuse we can't all help in some small way, no matter where we live), please visit [email protected] or Two Sisters.