Belgian Kim Cools has found his calling on the banks of Inanda Dam, deep in KwaZulu-Natal’€™s picturesque but dirt-poor Valley of a Thousand Hills.

Cools came to South Africa as a businessman in 1995, but is now living in a rudimentary hut in KwaNgolosi promoting a natural diet based on garlic, lemons, oil olive and the Africa’€™s Solution supplement to local residents.

The Cools, who have been allocated land by local chief Nkosi Bheksisa Bhengu, do not believe HIV exists and are taking this message to their adopted community.

‘€œThere is no bad virus,’€ says Cools. ‘€œNothing is killing people except deficiencies and chemical intoxication.’€

Nkosi Bhengu, who has been persuaded that HIV is a myth, allows Cools and local volunteers to run a ‘€œclinic’€ from the KwaNgcolosi court house.

Neither Cools, his wife Delaine, nor any of the volunteers have any medical training, but describe Tine van der Maas and her mother, Nelly, as their mentors and follow their dietary programme.

While promoting a healthy diet to counter all ailments, Cools actively encourages people to throw away their antiretroviral drugs as he believes that ‘€œthe propaganda from the Treatment Action Campaign and pharmaceutical industry is killing people’€.

In fact, says Cools, ‘€œif the body is healthy, it should be able to heal itself’€.

The Cools, who started living at KwaNgcolosi in 2003, say they became interested in the AIDS dissidents after President Thabo Mbeki started to express doubts about the virus in 1999.

Extensive Internet searches brought them in contact with AIDS dissident Anthony Brink. Brink linked them up with Van der Maas, says Delaine.

The Cools have set up a number of organisations with different names, including African Rainbow Circle (ARC), Ngcolosi Awareness Centre and Earth Women.

While these organisations have websites set up by a PR company registered by the Cools, it is hard to ascertain whether they have members or local support.

Most of the Cools’€™ support was generated when Tine and Nelly Van der Maas were based at KwaNgcolosi and went door-to-door, caring for sick people and encouraging them to adopt the diet.

Cools used his technical expertise to help the Van der Maas’€™s to film their progress at KwaNgcolosi over four months.

Clinic volunteer Zonke Malinga, 30, who features in the video, told Health-e  that she had been on antiretroviral drugs since late 2001 and ‘€œthey did make a difference’€, causing her CD4 count (measure of immunity) to rise from 19 to 520.

However, last year she had a stroke. Cools convinced her that it was caused by the drugs. In November, she went onto the diet and stopped the ARVs. She has also stopped eating meat and sugar, keeps to the diet and says she feels healthy.

Deliwe Langa, 25, who also features in the video, said she was extremely weak and had trouble walking before going onto the diet. She had since gained almost 10kgs.

However, she told Health-e that when she could not afford the R100 for three days’€™ supply of the diet, she had got shingles.

‘€œI don’€™t think there is something called HIV,’€ said Langa. ‘€œWhen people first come here, they believe there is HIV. But after talking to Kim, they see there isn’€™t any.’€

Cools believes that Africa needs ‘€œAfrican solutions’€ and that the continent needs to lead a global return to a natural lifestyle.

For now, the Cools are operating on a shoestring budget but they hope that the Rath Foundation will give them funds to market the diet to other communities countrywide.

E-mail Kerry Cullinan