Dear Dr. Fischer,
In June, I had the privilege of going to Africa with the Mothers Without Borders program. Mothers Without Borders is a non-profit organization aimed at addressing the needs of orphaned and abandoned children in a holistic manner. They support efforts to provide safe shelter, food, clean water, education and access to caring adults. Part of their mission is to assure every child has someone to care for them and teach them of their value.
The program took a small group of us into villages to provide medical screening, recreation and education for the children. We taught the women in the villages skills such as knitting so they would have items to trade for food. We also taught them how to maintain good hygiene to prevent ringworm or other diseases. We distributed hygiene kits that included Ultradent’s Opalescence toothpaste and Smile toothbrushes. Thank you again for donating these items.
I’ve been asked what I remember most about my trip and I can tell you that I don’t remember the days but I remember “moments”. One of the moments was spending time with one of the street kids at the Chisomo House. She caressed my hair and said “you’re like my mother”. I remember spending the day with Gordon, an orphaned boy in one of the villages, because he never left my side from the moment we arrived. I remember Kupa, a seven year old orphaned boy, greeting me with a big hug. When I tried to step away, he wouldn’t let go because he just wanted to be held. I remember playing hokey pokey for hours and having 30-50 kids anxiously wait for the next round. And I will never forget the sweet girl with green glitter on her face that I met on the side of the road my last day in Zambia. She hugged me and kissed my cheek and asked that I never forget her. These sweet memories are imprinted on my heart.
I recorded this in my journal on Wednesday, June 18, 2008: I have been in Zambia, Africa since Saturday, June 14th and since that time, 30,855 children have lost a parent to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. It is expected that 33% of Zambian children will be orphaned by the end of 2010. I ask myself, what do I have to offer these people? What is my part in all of this?
It was hard to answer that question four days upon arrival. However, after being there for two and half weeks I learned that my part is to love, comfort, support, and give of myself one person at a time. Mother Theresa once said, “I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look only at the individual. I can love only person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one. I picked up one person—maybe if I didn’t pick up that one person, I wouldn’t have picked up the others. The whole work is only a drop in the ocean. But if we don’t put the drop in, the ocean would be one drop less. Same thing for you. Same thing in your family. Same thing in the church where you go. Just begin…one, one, one.”
Thank you for supporting my opportunity to experience giving love, one person at a time.
Lori Page
