Zimbabwe

This week has been a long week. Unsure of what is going on in Zim and every day hoping for some good news. I wonder how many people even know what is going on? Do they even know how bad it is there? All of my time was spent in Johannesburg but I would say almost half of the babies we receive are at least half Zimbabwean :) So many of our mothers are in the country illegally because they have fled from Zim. I will never forget a conversation I had with one of them.

We will call her Gift. She was 17 years old and had just given birth to her first child, a beautiful baby girl. She named her after the mother she had never known because HIV had taken her when Gift was still young. Now Gift was giving me her beautiful baby because she too, at 17, was HIV positive. As I sat and talked with her I just had to ask what on earth would bring a 17 year old girl illegally into the crime capitol of the world? Why would she leave her family and friends, and come to Johannesburg where she does not know anyone and cannot even legally work? With cold empty eyes that seemed to have no life left in them at all, she looked at me and said "you don't understand. At least here in Johannesburg I can walk into a store and see bread and see soap. In Zim there is no bread in the store, there is no soap to buy."

What has this world come to. More importantly what I am doing to help? How can I make a difference. Sure living in South Africa and loving these babies is what I am going to do but is it enough? What happens after that? Where is Gift today? Is she still alive? How can I pray? Who can I inform? Like everyone else, I choose to ignore it. I flip the channel when the World Vision commercials come on or even when a news station starts talking about world event. It is easier for me to turn a blind eye than to reach out a hand. I pray for change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jfEqJx1Xz8