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Nominee 3
Nkosi Johnson

Nkosi Johnson, the little boy with the big eyes, gave children with AIDS in South Africa a voice that reached around the world...

Nkosi himself had AIDS and died when he was 12 on 1 June 2001 – the day Children’s Day is celebrated in South Africa, a day dedicated to the welfare of children. But during his short life Nkosi did a lot of thinking about why the South African government and the adults of the world didn’t do everything they could to protect children from being born with HIV. And why they don’t take care of children who are born with HIV – children who will gradually develop AIDS and die very young. Nkosi also saw how children became orphans because their mothers and fathers died of AIDS. These children ended up on the street without anyone to take care of them.

> Learn more about Nkosi

Why is Nkosi a nominee?
Nkosi Johnson has been nominated posthumously (after his death) as WCPRC Decade Child Rights Hero 2009 for his fight for the rights of children with HIV and AIDS. He fought for their right
to go to school and to be treated like other children. He opened a home for poor mothers and children with AIDS. He urged the South African government to give mothers with HIV special drugs that would save the lives of tens of thousands of children in South Africa every year. Even after his death, Nkosi continues to be a role model for children with AIDS, as well as for healthy children, who he taught to respect and not be afraid of children with AIDS.
Learn more about Nkosi and his work in the original stories from when he was nominated, posthumously, in 2002.
> Orginal stories (2002)
Nkosi Johnson gives a speech
From Nkosi’s speech in July 2000, before an audience of 10,000 and TV cameras:
Hi, my name is Nkosi ... and I have AIDS.
> Nkosi’s speech
Nonhlanhla Ngcobo
“I usually listen to the radio every evening before I go to sleep. As we don’t have electricity our radio runs on batteries.“
> Nkosi on the radio
Nkosi and Badi
Badie: “Nkosi and I were very close. Towards the end we were almost like brothers. But in the beginning many of my teachers and I were afraid of him and didn’t want to touch him.
> Nkosi taught headmaster not to be afraid
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