The people

This has to be one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken. His eyes go right through me every time. His picture in the center of my “Africa” wall.

There are times when his sweet little face comes to mind. Those eyes overwhelming my heart, just thinking about it makes me teary. He’s beautiful. I don’t know his name. He was too shy to tell me, he never said a word. But when he warmed up to me, he gave the sweetest hugs and had the brightest smile. I imagine he’s only 3 or so, however I could be way off. Due to the overwhelming malnutrition in Africa, he could be 5. I don’t know his story, but his eyes look so sad. He’s not alone though. When I was in Liberia, I met dozens of children. Most ran to me and wanted to touch, play, or pull my hair, while others weren’t so sure at first. I understand the fascination and the fear. I am a white girl with blond hair, not a very common thing in Africa, especially Liberia. I loved on and played with kids who probably only had one meal a day, if that. Their parents probably couldn’t afford school and they definitely didn’t have running water. In fact, I watched one little boy use bathroom in the same water a little girl drank from and a woman washed clothes in. It was devastating.

You know those dramatic commercials asking you to sponsor a child? They show a child playing in trash, filthy, and crying. They make some claim like this 9 year old boy is raising his siblings. They don’t bring in trash and make the situation look bad. The situation is atrocious. I’ve stood in the middle of the largest slum in Africa. Over one million people living in a tiny area built and surrounded by trash.  Not everyone in Africa lives like that, but just one should be enough to disgust anyone with a heart. Knowing that children live like that should bring you to your knees. You can’t imagine it and you can’t begin to comprehend it if you haven’t seen.

According to World Vision in 2009, 30 children died every 2 minutes from preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia. Twenty-four thousand died every 24 hours. That means 8.5 million died in one year from preventable causes! PREVENTABLE CAUSES! 

In Liberia, we met with health officials and they told us that a major cause of infant death was tetanus.  Tetanus is generally caused from an infected wound, that’s why if you step on a rusty nail, you need to get another shot. If you think about it, how would an infant get tetanus? Well in the rural parts of Liberia, it is believed that stuffing the umbilical cord with dirt or feces will protect them. Open wound + diseased substance= tetanus.

There’s a tribal group in Ethiopia that throws their children in the river if their top teeth come in before their bottom teeth, because they believe the children are evil.

Although the statistics are astounding, these are just the reported ones. These aren’t statistics though, these are children, families, people.

I don’t mean to get on my soapbox, but it’s not just that all these people I’ve written about love Africa, they hurt for the people and that’s what it’s all about for me. The people. And this picture reminds me of that.

Recommended Organizations

I’ve gotten several questions on how you can get involved with organizations in Africa. I understand. It’s hard to find places to trust sometimes, with the way the world is, which is so wrong and sad I cannot even begin to write about it.

There are several organizations I’ve been involved with over the years.  You can also get involved with organizations that I’ve mentioned in previous posts like Brighton Their World (www.brightontheirworld.com) or Amazima Ministries (http://www.amazima.org/).

Compassion International is the one that I sponsor Musa through. I’ve been involved with the organization since 2004 and they are really great.  What they are most known for is the sponsorship program.  When a person sponsors a child, they get to choose the country, gender, and generally get a choice of several children. You get to read a brief history on them and see a picture.  It costs about $32.00 a month. This covers the child’s schooling, clothes, and food. You can also donate money for Christmas and birthday presents. One thing I love about how they do Christmas is they compile all the money and divide it equally among all the children, regardless if his or her sponsor donated any money. If you can’t commit to monthly contribution, they have several other opportunities to get involved. You can find out more about Compassion on their website www.compassion.org

Invisible Children is an organization started by a few college aged guys who traveled to Uganda and found a 20-year-long war going on that few in the United States knew about. What is especially unknown about this war and most in less advanced nations is the use of children.  Child soldiers are quite common and it is unusual for the boys to sign up for this.  What generally happens, for the war particularly, is the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) invades and village and kills numerous people. They kidnap the young girls and boys and might also kill the children’s parents in front of them to scare them into submission.  They beat and force the boys to kill until they are brainwashed and use the girls as “wives” for the older soldiers.  It’s appalling and an far too less known evil in this world.  Invisible Children was started to stop the LRA from their use of children, inform the United States of the war, and bring the war to an end. 

You can get involved several ways. There is a chapter here at KSU if you want to get involved.  They do screenings about once a semester and generally have someone from Uganda that speaks as well. You can purchase merchandise like shirts and bags to buy.  And finally, you can sponsor a child so they can go to school.  Here’s Invisible Children’s website http://invisiblechildren.com/

Other organizations that I’ve been involved with and trust are:

Charity Water: http://www.charitywater.org/

Samaritan’s Purse: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

World Vision: http://www.worldvision.org/

Some of these organizations are involved all over the world so you can choose where you want your money to go and generally what you want it used for. The most important thing is to get involved. We live in the richest country in the world even in an economic crisis. Don’t just sit there. Do something.

Katie Davis

I’ve never met Katie Davis. I feel like I know her very well. I’ve read her blog for some time and am in the midst of finishing her book Kisses from Katie. I highly recommend this book if you would like to be inspired, hear crazies stories, and blown away by her story. She graduated from high school in 2007, the same year I did. After begging her parents, they allowed her to spend one year in Uganda teaching kindergartens. Four years, she’s still there. I have no idea where to begin with this girl’s story, it’s so crazy.

            I have no doubt that the Lord wants me to adopt from Africa. What I’m not sure about is if He’ll ever want me to move there. It would be a difficult process, but after reading her story, I’d go for sure. She lives in Uganda and loves Africa for the same reasons I do. She loves it for the people, the need, and non-American instant gratification, money obsessed way of life. Most are grateful for everything they have and incredibly selfless.

            While she spent her year teaching, she lived in a tiny shack on the property of the school/orphanage. She taught 106 eager, beautiful children. However she noticed a big problem, many other children were not in school, because their children could not afford it.  Katie could not sit by and watch to she used some of her savings to pay for some of the children’s school.  And a few more. And then a few more after that.  Soon, she realized she needed help with paying for children to go to school so she consulted her parents and started Amazima Ministries. To have a non-profit, she needed a real address and not a tiny shack. She bought a large house with running water and electricity, a rarity there and went to work. The house was rather large for just one person, and she wasn’t sure why this house was the one for her. However, the Lord revealed to her shortly after it was meant to filled with people and children. Katie is the kind of person who stops on the side of the road to help someone. She’s also the type of person who would walk 13 miles to help someone.  She has done both numerous times.  During her first year, she brought into her home, three little orphaned girls and she decided to adopt them, at the age of 18. I told this is a crazy story. What gets even crazier is over the four years, she lived in Uganda, she’s adopted 11 other little girls. 

            Her journey to stay in Uganda after that first year was not an easy.  With a desire to obey her parents, she went college after the year she went to Uganda and struggled the entire semester. As much she Katie loved her friends, family, boyfriend, etc., she ached for Uganda. America was not longer her home. Her home was with her ministry and daughters in Uganda. After five months, she flew home and has lived there ever since. She has watched young child and old grandparents die. She’s watched families lose loved ones and she’s lost a lot of people she loved. She continues on. She never turns someone down and brings sick, diseased people into her home and cares for them. She’s one of kind and I truly admire her for what she believes, how she loves and lives, and her courageous spirit in spite of what others think. 

This is the website for her ministry: http://www.amazima.org/

(By the way this ministry has grown to house over 400 orphans and provides for all of them and other students to go to school.)

This is her blog address: http://www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/