Dr. Pasquine Ogunsanya reports that the clinic is already seeing a greater influx of patients in 2010. She says, “It has been constantly busy with both the inner reception and overflow reception full. They have all asked me to wish you a Happy New Year and a big thank you for their lives.”

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This past trip was to show some of our KCA College students how Keep a Child Alive works on the ground. KCA works to provide anti-retroviral treatment at no cost to patients at the Blue Roof along with comprehensive care, we work with Bobbi Bear to give abused children a voice in ZA, we take care of orphaned children at Agape and give them a loving home and help Ikageng & Mum Carol to be a family to 1715 children who have lost their parents and live in child-headed households. For me, watching Dan & Jess immersed in the South African culture and embrace these children and talk with patients was phenomenal and that was what the trip was all about. I know that these two will take what they saw with them and carry it into everything they do.

There is one moment from our trip to ZA that I must share. On our last day in ZA, we joined Mum Carol on home visits to 4 child-headed households that are under the care of Ikageng. These are households of children who have lost their parents and only children are left in the families. Our very last visit was to see brothers Arthur and James on the very edge of the township in Soweto. They have lost both their parents and have no other family to live with – they were left with the shack their parents owned. It is at the bottom of a little hill which means all the rain runs into their home, they have one bed, one sofa and a stove top lit with a match. But let me tell you, it was the most immaculate house I’ve ever seen for boys! Arthur is 19 years old and is in his second year of accounting at uni and lives in residency (funded by Ikageng) which leaves his younger brother James at home alone. James just passed his matric (high school final exams) and we are very proud of him! He has such big dreams and wants to go to school to study Marketing and also play soccer. Even with all their loss, these boys were all smiles and have the biggest dreams in the world. This describes the beauty and hope that these children somehow maintain amongst everything that has happened to them. These children are heroes to me. Ikageng makes these dreams possible and continues to do so for so many children of Soweto. That is why Mum Carol is a superwoman to us at KCA and a mother to the hundreds of children at Ikageng.

I am so thankful to be apart of the Keep a Child Alive family and coming back here to NYC just means that I get to continue my work for these children and families. I urge you in this new year of 2010 to think about these children and the stories we’ve told from our trips and how you can help them. Text ALIVE to 90999 to donate $5 to Keep a Child Alive or head to www.keepachildalive.org to make a tax-deductible donation online. I think you know what you have to do next.

All my love,

xo Busiswe (my Zulu name) / Louise

Leaving Durban was very sad and I was absolutely dreading leaving the Blue Roof after an incredible week with the staff there and all the patients welcoming us in, but we had to leave nonetheless. Thank goodness our South African mother, Auntie Rhona, who is the Director of the Blue Roof Clinic in Durban decided to come with us to Jo’burg to visit Ikageng because I couldn’t handle another goodbye!

We landed in Jo’burg and immediately felt the difference now being up in the mountains at a much higher altitude and away from the ocean where we were in Durban. We headed straight to Soweto to meet the wonder woman known as Mum Carol at Ikageng Itireleng AIDS Ministry. Ikageng Itireleng means ‘helping others help themselves’ and that is exactly what Mum Carol and the staff here accomplish. Because HIV/AIDS has wiped out an entire generation of parents, too many children have been orphaned and abandoned here in South Africa. It is heartbreaking to see little children running around, but knowing they don’t have parents to go home to at night. Mum Carol is a mother to 1715 children here in Soweto, a township outside of Johannesburg that have lost their own parents. She runs a beautiful project that gives children the opportunity to come together, share their stories, become a family, have an education and ultimately, gives each of these children a mothers’ love and hope for the future. To see her interact with each and every child that comes to Ikageng is beyond. She knows every story, every name and how they are doing in school.

We had the opportunity to be at Ikageng while there was a support group running. There were about 50 children singing and dancing together when we first arrived. We joined in and I was over-enjoyed by the smiles on their faces. We split into groups of 10 to talk about how 2009 was, what they are leaving in the past, what they are excited for in the new year and what 2010 means to them. I had the chance to sit with 10 children ages 9-17, each with an incredibly unique story. What amazed me was how passionate each child was about school and their goals in 2010 to do better in school and make their families proud. I want to tell you a story about a family of 4 girls who live in a child-headed household in Soweto and are apart of the program at Ikageng. Nokulunga is the eldest at 17 years old and looks after her 13 year old and twin-10 year old sisters. Their parents died a few years ago which left these 4 girls to fend for themselves. Nokulunga just gave birth in April of last year and now has a beautiful baby boy to add to the family, leaving her to look after her 3 younger sisters and now a newborn child. When I asked Nokulunga how 2009 was, she said it was a good year – I cannot complain, my baby is healthy, we have food to eat and all my sisters are still with me. Nevermind the fact Nokulunga (which means ‘the good one’) lost her parents, is now a single-parent and had to drop out of school but somehow with a huge smile on her face she said 2009 was a good year. She is hoping to be back at school this year and will find someone to look after her son. The strength this young girl at 17 years of age is absolutely beyond me – but this is exactly the reason why Mum Carol has created Ikageng, to look after these children, and this is just one story. There are hundreds of thousands more.

Our trip is quickly coming to an end here in South Africa but it just makes me realize our huge the need here is. These children and families need us. Our work is more crucial now in the lives of these people than ever and we must help. I know not everyone can make it to Africa to witness these stories but I hope our stories will touch you and move you to a place where you understand how necessary it is to join this Keep a Child Alive movement. Please donate at www.keepachildalive.org or you can text the word ALIVE to 90999 in the U.S to donate $5 to Keep a Child Alive right now.

So much love,
xo Louise