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The photo taken in August by Marie Arago shows two kids finally at the head of a line to receive bread. "We also supply food to orphans," I mention to U.S. donors, as if feeding children is mundane, hardly anything. But being close enough to speak with these kids makes it difficult not to wonder, "Will there be bread next time, and the time after that?" This is inconceivable, utterly impermissible. The children are cared for by a group formed in 1997 to help AIDS patients. When the parents died their kids were left behind. This organization cares for 1500 children, a typical number for an entity of this kind. Of this number 52 contracted HIV from their mothers at birth or through breast milk. They are now on medications for HIV and/or TB. The youngest attend free government primary schools. We pay secondary school fees for 21 orphaned youth. The Executive Director is enlightened. His former professor at the University of Malawi says "we knew he was a special person." Here the psychosocial needs of the children are attended to, as well as the physical. In Let Us Now Praise Famous Men James Agee wrote, "In every child that is born, under no matter what circumstance and no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again and in him, too, once more and of each of us, our terrific responsibility toward human life: toward the utmost idea of goodness, of the horror of terror, and of God." In this photo I see the potentiality of the human race, and I feel some urgency and joy at responding, being somehow responsible. And because you help us help them, maybe you too feel a little bit the same. Rev. Dr. William Rankin Email GAIA info@thegaia.org • Tel 415-461-7196 • Visit our website: http://www.thegaia.org |
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