(By Anwar Smith) – Are those your sentiments when you hear someone mention the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa? Have we become so calloused to the ills of this world that we completely ignore the plight of people not in our immediate circles? Young men and women of God, this cannot be. I recently read an article written by Commissioner Helen Clifton, entitled “What Will This Child Be?”. In it she spoke of her travels all across the world and the work that The Salvation Army is doing to meet the needs of children. One place that she mentioned in particular caught my attention. It is in Soweto, South Africa and it is called the Carl Sithole Centre; a place of refuge, solace and hope. This Centre founded by The Salvation Army in 1998 contains residential homes, a school and a community center.
What makes a place like the Carl Sithole Centre so special? I am so glad that you asked! Starting back as far as the mid to late 80’s, South Africa has seen a dramatic increase in people affected by HIV/AIDS. In 1990, the number of infected individuals was approximately 120,000. This number was truly staggering at that time because, unlike today, there was no anti-virus available to help suffering patients. And, on top of that, there was no education about the virus, and there was very little intervention done to prevent the spread of the disease. By 1995, The South African Ministry of Health reported that the number had swelled to 850,000 people infected with HIV. If we skip ahead 10 years, that number had grown to an astonishing 5.2 million people infected with HIV in South Africa. That is nearly 10% of the entire country. If you need to put that in perspective, that number would be the equivalent of every single person in the state of Minnesota being infected with that horrible disease. For further comparison, in 2006, the Center for Disease Control estimated that there were 1.1 million people infected with the HIV/AIDS virus in the United States. This number is staggering in and of itself, but based on a total population of 305 million people, it is a problem that affects less than 1% of the U.S. population. By contrast, South Africa has a total population of only 47.9 million people. It is unbelievable to think that 1 in every 10 people in the entire country is infected with the disease. I am sure you can imagine the problems that are created by this epidemic, but one of the biggest issues is the number of children orphaned because of this tragedy. According to the United Nations AIDS Report, in 2007 there were an estimated 1.4 million children orphaned because of deaths to their parents due to HIV/AIDS. Not to mention the additional 280,000 children under the age of 15 that live with the disease themselves.
So again, the question remains, why is a place like the Carl Sithole Centre so special? The answer is simple: because children are suffering from diseases and homelessness and The Salvation Army created this Centre to look after and care for them. Ladies and gentleman, it is of utmost importance that we get involved in this cause. The projected number of children that will be orphaned by this disease by 2015 is too great to comprehend. Now is the time to get off the sideline and get into the game. Every prayer and every dollar given towards World Services, makes a difference in places like Soweto, Kenya and the Congo and other places around the world.
On February 6, at Youth Encounter 2009, you will be challenged to identify one luxury that you can give up for the entire month of March for “No Buy Month”, a special Change In, Change Out push. The money that would have been spent on that item should go directly into your Change In, Change Out jug. So, when you are in line to buy another video game that you don’t need or another pair of shoes to go along with the 10 pair you already have, think about the children that will wake up to no one. Children that are on the streets, alone and abandoned, being taking advantage of and forced into the sex trade or the militia’s and trained to kill. Then think of places like The Salvation Army’s Carl Sithole Centre that provides hope, love and safety all in the name of Jesus Christ. The money you spend on shoes or a video game could provide a bed for one more child, food for more children, staff to look after more children. More children can be off the street and cared for, given medicine and taught about the God that is at work in the midst of the trouble. It can’t be enough to simply know the issues plaguing the world; we must be moved to act.
“On September 4, 1886, an appeal appeared in the War Cry to get soldiers to raise funds for the Army’s work overseas because they were struggling to make ends meet. The article read:
DENY YOURSELF
Some Little Luxury,
Some Pleasant Article of Food,
Some Ornament,
Some Pleasure,
In short, sacrifice something which, without inflicting bodily harm, will get some money, send the money thus saved into this Fund, and the effort will be completed right off.”
The Salvation Army is already there, all we need to do is make a few sacrifices that can then be sent to help expand the Army’s reach.
Let’s give our change to help God change the world!
Sources:
“HIV And AIDS In South Africa”
“U.S. Census Bureau”
“U.S. States, Population And Ranking”
“What Will This Child Be?”, Commissioner Helen Clifton
“Project Report, Carl Sithole Children’s Centre, Soweto”