Person of the Week: Gail Johnson

June 11, 2010— -- Long before little Nkosi Johnson captured the attention of the world, he'd already made an indelible mark on the people who loved him.

Nkosi, an HIV orphan, lost his mother to AIDS. Left on his own, he battled the disease at a time when South Africa was unwilling to talk about the growing epidemic.

At just 11 years old, he bravely spoke in front of the world at an International AIDS Conference in 2000. Nelson Mandela famously called him an "icon for the struggle of life."

"We are normal, we are human beings, we can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else," Johnson said at the conference in 2000. "Don't be afraid of us. We are all the same."

Nkosi was South Africa's longest surviving child born HIV positive. Behind the young man, the icon, was his adopted mother, Gail Johnson. When his birth mother, also infected with the disease, was unable to take care of him, Johnson adopted him.

Together, Johnson and Nkosi started a "shoestring shelter" for a dozen AIDS mothers and their kids in 1999. They called the refuge, Nkosi's Haven.

On a tour of the shelter in 2000, Nkosi showed how full the shelter was.

"This is a small house. It can't fit the other mothers who are HIV. They are dying," Nkosi said.

The shelter was at capacity with 10 mothers and 15 children. Johnson knew the shelter would be the beginning of something greater.

"Now that we've got this house, I intend [on] having a hell of a lot more," Johnson said in 2000. "I want to sort of have a national franchise or chain of them. It's terribly important."