World AIDS day
Some of the thoughts that were going through my mind, while I was going about my day. World AIDS Day 2007 Now it is different. It’s not just a Bono concert of Madonna holding the hand of a child that has survived the elements of poverty. It’s not just a video on TV of a remote continent. It is not just a distant word with no meaning. The letters, a, I, d, s, h,I,v, aren’t just random portions of the alphabet put together to make a random acronym.
This morning I had so much on my plate. I had to edit more photos and continue editing the video that I took while in Africa. I had things to do for work and to plan out all the details to the places I volunteer my time. I decided to turn on the TV for some back ground noise. I flipped through the channels to find something interesting to listen to, when I came across CNN. On the bottom of the television screen I saw the famous red ribbon. Immediately, my journey to Africa awoke. Images flashed in my mind.
Today all over the world the earth is focusing on this pandemic. People all over the world have seen a newspaper in the stand, or flipped a TV station, or heard something in the radio. Today the world is asking us to make a conscience decision to hear, learn, pray, and respond. Today we have the option to do just this or conscientiously turn our eyes, and ears away from this. Christiane Amanpour from CNN did a news story titled (where are the parents?) In this she interviews people all over Kenya.
She interviews a young boy who wipes the sweat from his HIV fathers brow. He says that he can’t concentrate at school because he knows is daddy is ill.
There is a 14 year old girl who has 5 brothers and sisters. She washes clothes in the neighborhood for .50 cents a bushel. She cleans and cooks for them so that they can concentrate on their education. When asked about her dreams and wishes to go to school. She simply recognized them and then looks straight into the camera to say she loves her family more.
A grandmother is left with 5 grandchildren. She works in the garbage dump to fill a hefty bag worth of recyclables. She makes .10 cents a hefty bags worth.
There is a Masai grandmother who takes care of 9 grandchildren.
A younger girl in the village travels 20KM to get grain to make porridge for the village. The grandmother often goes w/out food so her grandchildren could have a bit more. The camera zooms in on a child who is scraping the pan of porridge to get the last kernel of food.
And then in the midst of all of this you also hear the great stories of philanthropy. A woman purchased an entire modern day facility of medical equipment. She not only bought the facility, she filled it with computers, research laboratories, and medicine. She even purchased motorcycles with coolers attached. The motorcycles are given to the nurses and home based care volunteers to reach the remote places. I watch all of this. And of course the tears roll down my face.
I get emails from my friends that are Christian. They work for Christian organizations to help encourage dialogue and share knowledge of what is going on in Africa. They create small brochures that have a face of a child with proven facts. Then I get emails saying that the information were unwelcome. That no one in that particular church wanted to respond or even hear about it. And my heart breaks. Breaks. It’s all that is pretty much going through my mind since I’ve been home. I wonder if these people have ever had to take care of a loved one, if they ever watched their parent die w/out any medication. Or even knowing that there was medication to help but because of their sociology-economic status it isn’t available to them.
Have they ever had to wipe their daddy's feverish brow? Did they ever have to give up going to school to take care of their brothers and sisters? Would they take care of their nine grandchildren because they lost their own kids to HIV/AIDS? They may respond with; Not in my house, that would NEVER happen to us, the reasons go on and on….. But the statistics would argue that. It is happening to us. It is happening in our households, it is happening in our neighborhoods, our world is in crisis. I don’t know what it’s going to take for our community to realize that this is a way to show the love of Christ. That this is an amazing time to be born. That with the free gift of love we can make a world of a difference. (SOME OF MY THOUGHTS ON WORLD AIDS DAY)
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