What God Has Made

I know a young Australian doctor and his name is Maithri (My3) Goonetilleke. He has a blog and it is entitled The Soaring Impulse. It is a dream blog with many lovely stories, songs, poems, inspiration that walks off the page, and where a real 28-year old man writes and tells us his truth. He says of himself that he is ‘Just another young poet walking the broken road to freedom.’ Maithri is a man that is making a difference in the world. Maithri is a man among men.

He is doing work right now in Swaziland; a country with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world at 42% of the population, a country where orphaned children make up 10% of the population. The little mountain kingdom of Swaziland has over 70,000 orphans and over 15,000 child-headed families.

The intention of my post is to bring awareness to the children of Swaziland and to, if at all possible for some of us in these hard times, raise some money for the humanitarian work that is being done there. And if not in Swaziland than maybe in your own backyard where you see that there is a need.

My very dear friend Tessa has been selling some prints of her artwork where 100% of the proceeds are going to Maithri’s friend and colleague Dr. Joyce Mareverwa who works hard to save the lives of HIV/AIDS orphans.

You can find Tessa’s artwork and the story she wrote on her decision to take a stand on this very important issue in Swaziland and the people who live there here:

http://aerialarmadillo.blogspot.com/2009/02/world-was-silent-when-they-died-orphans.html

Please watch the video on Tessa's post, it is heartbreaking. I have watched this video a few times because that is all I can stand.

On April 25, 2009 I was visiting Maithri’s blog and was poked through the eyeballs by the truth.

In that day’s post entitled ‘Maybe its the third world’ Maithri writes:

“And yet, somewhere in our collective imagination, we have created worlds within worlds. Third worlds and first worlds. Worlds where it is not ok for even one child to die and other worlds where a child dies every 3 seconds and no one blinks an eyelid. I hear of words like ‘compassion fatigue’…And I have to tell you that the concept nauseates me. That we who have so much can even contemplate tiring of reaching out to those of our human family who have absolutely nothing, is absolutely incomprehensible to my little brain.”

“I know that if we were face to face with these people. If we could only see their humility, their dignity, the immensity of their love and kindness in the midst of the deepest sorrow imaginable…”

Maithri writes about a little girl named Khosiyendzile which means ‘what God has made’ on April 15th and I invite you to treat yourself to pure joy by reading this post:

http://soaringimpulse.blogspot.com/2009/04/khosiyendzile.html

~~ Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. ~~ by Mother Theresa.

If you are able and your circumstances allow, please either go to Tessa’s site or Maithri’s site and donate to help the children in Swaziland.

Love Renee xoxoxo

*artwork by Tessa Edwards