Worlds apart
8 Mar 2010
Do you remember what life was like at the age of nine? At nine years old I would have been in year 4 at school. Most probably learning my time-tables and the names of the planets in outer-space. To be honest, I cant remember a lot about my life back then but after watching a video on the BBC news today I found my mind drifting back.
At age 9, Esther now looked after her brother and her sick mother in Zimbabwe. One day she was outside doing the dishes when she heard a sound. Immediately she came inside and went straight to her mother asking what it was she had heard. Her mother did not respond but instead took a deep breath in and then out.
For Esther, it was the last breath she would ever see her mother take. For a while now her mother had suffered with AIDS and had also passed it on to her children.
The loss was painful for Esther to go through but it made it easier to now provide for her family as it was now just her and her baby brother left. Before passing away her mother said to her, "Goodbye, take care of yourself." As I watched Esther tell her story I couldn't help but feel worlds apart. At less than half my age, she had already been through more than I could even imagine. But the reality was, her situation was really not that far from me at all.
I may never be able to completely understand her life and all she been through, but I had to ask myself, with stories like these on the increase in Zimbabwe and surrounding nations, what was I doing about it?
At age nine, I had no idea of the intensity of the issues in our world today. I didn't understand that someone my age could live such a different life. But now that I know, now that I've seen and heard, I am responsible. It is both our responsibility and privilege to be able to give in and to help those struggling for the things we took for granted as children. To restore to them their childhood and help them to live the life they've imagined. Let us not let a dream go to waste for lack of response, after all, children like Esther could be the ones to lead a great revolution in our world!
To help Sponsor a Child in Africa - Compassion
To help provide food for a child in Zimbabwe - Global Giving
Sources:
BBC News
At age 9, Esther now looked after her brother and her sick mother in Zimbabwe. One day she was outside doing the dishes when she heard a sound. Immediately she came inside and went straight to her mother asking what it was she had heard. Her mother did not respond but instead took a deep breath in and then out.
For Esther, it was the last breath she would ever see her mother take. For a while now her mother had suffered with AIDS and had also passed it on to her children.
The loss was painful for Esther to go through but it made it easier to now provide for her family as it was now just her and her baby brother left. Before passing away her mother said to her, "Goodbye, take care of yourself." As I watched Esther tell her story I couldn't help but feel worlds apart. At less than half my age, she had already been through more than I could even imagine. But the reality was, her situation was really not that far from me at all.
I may never be able to completely understand her life and all she been through, but I had to ask myself, with stories like these on the increase in Zimbabwe and surrounding nations, what was I doing about it?
At age nine, I had no idea of the intensity of the issues in our world today. I didn't understand that someone my age could live such a different life. But now that I know, now that I've seen and heard, I am responsible. It is both our responsibility and privilege to be able to give in and to help those struggling for the things we took for granted as children. To restore to them their childhood and help them to live the life they've imagined. Let us not let a dream go to waste for lack of response, after all, children like Esther could be the ones to lead a great revolution in our world!
To help Sponsor a Child in Africa - Compassion
To help provide food for a child in Zimbabwe - Global Giving
Sources:
BBC News
Comments
Re: Worlds apart
God, noone should have to go through this, still so many people do it every day... And when you're nine... We need to take up our responsibility and help!!
8 Mar 2010 by Lizette Jonsson // Sweden
Re: Worlds apart
So true... we are responsible to help those children and it is such a privilege that we're able to do something about it. Every child has so many potentials and dreams in them and it's such an honor that we can save their dreams+hope in some sort of way.
LOVE what you wrote: "Let us not let a dream go to waste for lack of response, after all, children like Esther could be the ones to lead a great revolution in our world."
8 Mar 2010 by Minjoo Kwak // United States
