TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
Uniting to End AIDS Worldwide
Uniting to End AIDS Worldwide
World AIDS Orphans Day
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Wednesday, May 7th is World AIDS Orphans Day. It's an important day in my field of work as a Communications Officer and Project Manager with the Nyaka AIDS Orphans School in southwestern Uganda. It's staggering and unfathomable to even imagine the reality of 15 million AIDS orphans in the world today. 12 million of which are those in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2.2 million of those are in Uganda. And the numbers continue to grow with an expected 20 million by the year 2010.

What do these numbers tell us about ourselves, about humanity? Rich Stearns, President of World Vision in the U.S. has a great quote about the AIDS orphans crisis being the sin of our generation. He's right. This kind of suffering is inexcusable. It's shameful and in my opinion it's the greatest humanitarian injustice the world has ever seen.

Yet - we must still have hope that this devastation can be overcome. We just can't say that this problem is too huge, too impenetrable to make a dent in. We must continue to reach out and join hands with communities a world away and even if we have to go one child at a time - we must continue to do this.

My colleague, Jackson Kaguri, founded the Nyaka AIDS Orphans School. He grew up in the village where the school is located. He lost two older siblings to AIDS and helped provide an education for his nieces and nephews. Jackson is an example of how one person can make such an incredible difference. We all can't be Jackson Kaguris. But we all have a role to play if we want to take it on.

Jackson and I grew up worlds apart but have been brought together by an epidemic that is tearing a continent apart. Whether we realize it or not, those suffering in Africa are our brothers and sisters. When I spoke with the children at Nyaka - I told them how excited I was that I gained all of these new brothers and sisters and that yes, I truly believed they were my brothers and sisters. I asked them how I knew that we were brothers and sisters and they were all silent. Then I asked them if they were God's children? They nodded and said yes. I asked them if I was one of God's children and they said yes. So, I told them, doesn't that make us brothers and sisters. Smiles broke out on all the faces throughout the room and loud shouts of yes echoed in the room.

The point of this story is to tell you that if we (as in humanity) change our thinking and start realizing our connections with each other, and start realizing that we are truly brothers and sisters of humanity... then we can begin to put an end to this devastating epidemic. If we throw aside our history, throw aside our differences, lay down our fears, and unite we each other, we can enter a whole new realm of experience. When we realize that our sisters and brothers a world away are drowning in a sea of death and hopelessness and that we owe them our help, we will begin to turn away the spectre of AIDS. Until that happens, we can still pray and hope that the tide will turn. Let's look at May 7th, World AIDS Orphans Day, as a new beginning, as a day when the world truly unites to end this suffering.

May 6, 2008 | 8:10 PM Comments  0 comments

You must be logged in to add tags.


Chris Singer's Profile

Chris Singer's Friends


Latest Posts
Call for submissions
World AIDS Orphans Day

Monthly Archive
May 2008

Change Language


Tags Archive
aids callforsubmissions hiv media nyakaaidsorphansschool project uganda worldaidsorphansday

Filter By Type
Topics

Friends
Bridget
John Tumwebaze
Orphans for Christ in Africa


2069 views
Important Disclaimer