AIDS Awareness

Community Projects

Water for Life

* 1000 people die every single day of AIDS related illness in South Africa

AIDS is an abstract concept until you experience it...

You can hear about the devastating effect that AIDS is reeking on individuals, communities and nations. And you can try to conceive the stark statistics offered by governments and NGOs alike, but I don't think you can truly comprehend this annihilation on a level of deaths per second ratios until you experience the reality on a personal level.

Until you stand and watch young teenage boys dig a grave with such nonchalance that the frequency of the event becomes apparent. Until you watch 2 newly orphaned toddlers look on as their mother is buried amongst the ever-emerging mounds of dirt indicating another life lost to a killer that pre-school children innocently chant about. Until you stand amidst the 300 children we feed every day & realise that statistics tell me that 100 of them are already dying. Until you watch the comings and goings of our community and notice entire generations missing. Until you pass the hospital and see signs advertising a newly enlarged mortuary. Until you see friends around you getting sick and wonder to yourself if this is just nothing or the start of something that is slowly killing the people you love. Until you wonder how to approach the subject of getting tested in a culture that refuses to admit that there is even a problem & where a diagnosis of a 'slow puncture' means an immediate death sentence.

This is the reality we are living with.

One of my proudest moments in Africa so far has been one of our youth asking me to take him for an AIDS test. It is a huge decision here - there is an enormous amount of denial and a stigma about the whole HIV/ AIDS pandemic... despite statistics telling us that we have the highest prevalence of HIV in Africa! Praise God his results were clear! He now seems to have got hold of the idea that it is something everyone should be doing, is determined to do something about it & has some great ideas. When we got into the clinic the nurse turned round to him before he'd even said anything & said she believed he'd be a true disciple to bringing others for testing... I happen to agree. A few of our youth have already expressed a desire to follow his lead. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated!