Travis McCoy Writes From South Africa

Travis McCoy of the Gym Class Heroes writes to his fans about his experience while he's in Africa and they people dealing with AIDS/HIV. Travis also reveals something about his life when he was younger.

I had never been to Africa before, but standing at the top of a sand dune overlooking the slums of Khayelitsha yesterday, a section of South Africa’s sprawling Cape Flats, I felt completely connected to the homeland. The sun was setting, reflecting light off the millions of corrugated tin roofs below, the last hint of day before the Flats went dark and their two million inhabitants to bed. Overwhelmed and overtired my thoughts went on to paper.

Today I met my brother, two worlds apart.
One fire one heart.
Shantytowns, pastels and browns.
Smiling children, abandoned buildings.
We are not lost.

For me, a kid from upstate New York who lives his life online and often wears his heart on his sleeve, today everything was pulled close to my chest. I dedicated what I wrote to my new brother Bulelani Mvotho a South African filmmaker who is a grantee of MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, which funds 55 HIV/AIDS projects around the globe. I am their new Ambassador, trying to revive a dialog about HIV/AIDS amongst kids my age, 15 to 24-year olds who now account for 45 percent of HIV infections worldwide.

Bulelani’s Snapshot Mobile Community Cinema is helping to spread awareness and preach responsibility in the areas most vulnerable to the disease. Almost a third of the Cape Flat’s two million residents are HIV positive, one of the largest concentrated populations in the world.

To read the rest from Travis go HERE

Photo:Courtesy of MTV Networks via Examiner.com