Princess hopes to shed light on African struggles

Zindaba Nyirenda brings a different twist to the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child."

In Nyirenda's life, it's taking a princess to help children and their families in a section of the Chief Mphamba village of Lundazi, in Zambia.

Nyirenda, who was born an African princess before moving to the U.S. more than 20 years ago, gave a photo tour of her former home to a group gathered at Chiro One Wellness Center in Bloomingdale Thursday night.

Lisa Hill, 43, of Bartlett said she wanted to learn Nyirenda's story partly because, "We have celebrities going to Africa. Angelina Jolie. Bono. Oprah has done tremendous things with her school for girls."

Hill said, "There is a lot more attention going to AIDS and poverty where people aren't blind to it."

For Nyirenda, 44, of Palatine, the needs within African nations like Zambia isn't something she's learned about from celebrity-driven charitable causes like the Gap's Product (red) campaign led by Bono, but something that's been driving her for nearly a decade.

Nyirenda told the group that because of diseases like AIDS, in 2010 the life expectancy in Zambia will be only 25. And, she said, half of the country's orphaned children are so because of AIDS.

So, when Nyirenda sees magazines like Vanity Fair, which devoted its July issue to the topic of Africa with a record 20 different cover photos of celebrities like Bono, Madonna, Oprah and Sen. Barack Obama, she said it is helping to raise awareness of problems like systemic poverty and lack of medical care, but it is only a start.

"Hollywood has taken up the African cause against HIV/AIDS. It is huge and awesome, but I want to get the authentic voice out," Nyirenda said. "HIV/AIDS is about my dad. It is about sister."

Nyirenda's father died in 1993. Yet it took several years before her mother revealed he died from AIDS.

As a wealthy man who owned a soccer team, Nyirenda said, the team would often donate blood at a local hospital.

"His whole team, these physically fit boys, got sick," she said.

Part of the reason for the delay in learning the truth from her mother, Nyirenda said, was a sense of shame.

"Even now in Chicago, with friends from Africa, people feel shame when people lose their family to AIDS," Nyirenda said. Instead, she said, they will tell her, "'He had malaria.' 'He suddenly died.'"

In 2001, Nyirenda founded the nonprofit Lord of the Harvest Ministries, whose mission is to help impoverished communities like Lundazi, through efforts to purify drinking water and education to prevent HIV/AIDS.

Proceeds from Nyirenda's Palatine-based retail fashion business, Zindie's Bridal Designs, help support her work.

Providing purified non-well water is key to fighting HIV/AIDS in Lundazi, Nyirenda said, because, "Without clean water, they take the medication with contaminated water and they get sick again."

To further support her work, Nyirenda hopes to publish a manuscript of her life story and sell it to raise money.

Completed and edited, Nyirenda said she's looking for whom she said would be the perfect publisher.

Nyirenda asked the group, "How do I get to Oprah?"