One of our Shemsu in South Africa sent me photographs today of the children at the William Clarke Home, a place near Durban where children with AIDS live, either orphaned from parents who have already succumbed to the disease, or abandoned by their parents for fear of catching or spreading this disease that is already affecting more than 10% of the South African population. Amunnefret has been volunteering at William Clarke and is taking a course called "Childline," where she is learning to care for these children as part of her commitment to Netjer to serve humanity.

"It's astonishing," she told me. "I was quite concerned that being out of touch with really young children I would be at a loss as what to do with them to keep them entertained. As it turned out all that they needed from me, was to hold them, and talk to them. It is no exaggeration to say I was absolutely 'swarmed' by tiny bodies wanting to sit in my lap or next to me....Almost every child called me 'mammy' -- which I found quite touching and a little sad -- sad because they so badly need the specific attention that only a mother can give, that almost any visiting woman however temporary is elevated to that special position."

The photographs of these beautiful children break my heart. Most will be dead in less than a handful of years, due to a government refusing to subsidize AZT and other life-saving medicines, a cultural belief that those who already have the disease are past saving and not worth caring about, and no one, or no money, to care for them. These few children are only a handful of faces, reflecting the reality of AIDS in South Africa today.

• In 1999, of all new cases of AIDS on the African continent, 50% of them were in South Africa alone.
• 12% of the entire adult South African population -- 3 million people -- are HIV positive. Imagine the entire metropolitan Chicago area, or the entire population of the state of Oregon, with HIV.
• South Africa's neighbors, Botswana and Zimbabwe, report 25% infection rates, and experts say it will only be a matter of time before South Africa's numbers hit this level as well if nothing is done. (Source: HIV InSite: Gateway to AIDS Knowledge)

"The toughest part of this will be the almost inevitable fact that none of these children live for very long," Amunnefret confided in me when I asked about how her work was going. "The average life expectancy is about six years old (sometimes more sometimes quite a lot less). I pray that I am always reminded and am able to keep in perspective that though there may be many tears and much sorrow that has to be faced when one of the children passes on to the other side, that I never forget that there are many living who still need me to be there for them."

I thank Netjer for Amunnefret's ability to do this very hard work and hope that it will continue to be a spot of light, however small, in otherwise a very difficult and dark passage for too many children.

But I will join with others in saying that this should not be tolerated. This has to stop. I too have stood by the wayside, unaware or unwilling to look at what was going on: in Kwazulu-Natal or in my own back yard. Every time AIDS claims a life, it wins. This must end.

Contrary to stereotypes perpetuated in the United States, AIDS is not a disease of lifestyle, it is not a disease of race and it is not a disease of adults. People of all walks of life: gay and hetero, rich and poor, all colors and creeds, women, men, children -- are dying. The children in these photographs stand before a wall that holds 23 plaques -- bearing the names of 23 children who lived with them who have died from complications related to AIDS. They are but a small number of the total this disease will claim while the rest of the world turns a blind eye.

"Why should I be worried about a few little kids half a world away?" you might be tempted to ask. Put the faces of your own children into this photograph: your sons and daughters, your grandchildren, the kid down the street. Put the face of the future, our future as a world, among these little ones. What are we teaching them? What are they teaching us?

Learn something about AIDS, and then do something about it. Join us to make a difference -- join any religious or cultural or social work group of your choosing. There are children with AIDS all over the world dying alone right now. Make a difference for them, for yourself, and for the future of humanity.

See also:

• The Red Ribbon Project (South African Children with AIDS)
• The AIDS2000 Conference, Durban, South Africa (July 2000)
• The World AIDS Day Statement of Conscience
• A master list of organizations inside and outside the US that specialize in service to people with AIDS, from The StopAIDS Project