Work A Miracle

Work a Miracle. That's the title of the current campaign for Tearfund, a Christian relief agency that works in the poorest countries. Tearfund is based in the UK, right outside London, and is hosting a fundraising/awareness raising event tonight. My sisiter and I are going.

Work a Miracle is Tearfund's effort to stop the transmission of HIV from mother to child in the world's poorest countries by 2015. Yes, it's a big goal, but we all know that it's quite worthwhile and actually not too idealistic. If mother to child transmission can be stopped in developed countries it should be able to be halted in developing countries. I am by no means an expert on this and I have only spent 14 days of my 8,395 days (that's 0.16%) in Africa. However, those 14 days did "change my life" and have showed me that HIV/AIDS is devastating communities and families. The mother and daughter in the above picture both have HIV. When I was there last October neither of them had progressed enough to need ARVs, but the undoubtedly will need the drugs. When I was there the little girl and I (I can't remember her name, but it means Peace in Amharic) and I really became friends. We would play bubbles, catch, colour, and just hang out. Towards the end of the trip she would speak to me in Amharic and I would speak back to her in English. How different would her life be if she were born HIV-free?