Our Stories, Our Songs

A poem on the wall of the Open Arms Baby Care Center, Blantyre, Malawi:
AIDS is so limited.
It cannot cripple love.
It cannot shatter hope.
It cannot erode faith.
It cannot destroy confidence.
It cannot kill friendship.
If cannot shut out memories.
It cannot silence courage.
It cannot invade the soul.
It cannot quench the spirit.
Our greatest enemy is not disease, 
But despair.
-Author Unknown

"We need to remind ourselves why so many children are orphans today: because their parents were not able to get treatment for AIDS, most likely because they could not afford it, or because they lived in a country which was too poor to provide their basic health care. We must know that one of the greatest assaults to human dignity is poverty, where you wake up not knowing where you are going to get your next meal. When you cannot have decent accomoation for yourself and your children. When you cannot feed them, and send them to school. That is the greatest assault on human dignity." -Nelson Mandela
Here is a link to my reading log if you are interesting in reading some great children's books about Africa.