A Difficult Road Ahead

What of the Future?

In the photo are children who sang for those of us who attended the Missions Fest Conference in Pretoria two months ago. In what was an otherwise sober meeting, they brought a burst of life with their enthusiastic performance. So full of promise they seemed and yet they came from the same dire circumstances that affect so many of the children here in this beautiful land. Children here, and especially little girls face so many challenges. Just this week, a young man told me the terrible story of a seven year old girl who was raped and murdered by one of his relatives. There is still the belief that the younger the girl, the less the chance to get infected. And AIDS continue to take its toll here in South Africa. Every day 1000 people die from an AIDS related illness. This in turn leaves thousands of children orphaned by AIDS. Desmond Tutu mourned this fact when he said, our children are not able to live to enjoy the victory their parents won. This leads to child headed households or homes where grandmothers have to care for these boys and girls, and, often, their sick parents on nothing more than their pension money. One study showed in one province that 78 percent of older people who receive pension there were the breadwinners for their households. The scenario is disheartening but I am thankful for the help we bring here through Evangeline Ministries. One woman at a time is our goal! To touch a life, give a skill and enable a woman to earn something for her family or help reduce their expenses may seem like modest steps but they make a huge difference, and especially to the children. Always in our class, I am the only one without a child and generally the women in the sewing classes have together more than 30 children between them. If we could make that difference in the lives of those children, then we have done a lot here. When you buy a tote bag from Evangeline Ministries, you help the mothers to feed and clothe their children.
As the winter blows in, the class is making track suits to keep their kids warm. They are also making hanging closets for some other kids in the settlement of Capricorn. Many of those children come from drug and alcohol addicted parents and many are themselves on drugs. They live in shacks with no privacy. They have no place to store a book, or a pencil and place their school uniforms under the mattress to keep them smooth. These mini-cloth closets will give them a sense of being special with a place to put things they treasure. They will paint them to express what they feel through art. Once that happens I will post the photos here for you to see.
So what lies ahead for the children. One of the themes heard here often is the call for an aids-free generation. For that to happen it will take a massive effort on the part of the government, schools, non-governmental agencies, churches and Christian organizations among others. So far prevention efforts yield little success because of many cultural and economic factors. But I also believe there is another thing missing. South Africa needs local heroes and leaders to join in the fight against HIV and AIDS, to reject the stigma that forces even leaders to hide their status and for men who are held in high esteem to speak out against irresponsible sexual behavior that leads to children born into an endless cycle of poverty.