For Every Child There Can Be A Success Story
March 29, 2011 No CommentsI’m a little girl 22 months old. I have been going to the Abugida kindergarten since it started in June of last year. My life until then was sad, as is the case with many of the children who live here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
I was born with the “evil illness” of Africa, we can only whisper the name of this illness, an illness that stigmatizes and marginalizes all who have it (in that whisper, it is called AIDS). In fact, I even had to overcome the prejudice of some of my care-takers because we all know that babies are little “pigs” and that there is a lot of physical contact in a kindergarten. Some care-takers were immediately shown the door because they were insisting that children like me must use different cups and plates than the others.
In April of last year, all the children who were going to start at the new kindergarten started by Mediterranea were given a medical examination. Mediterranea has doctors who come here and help us for free. The doctor who examined me thought that I wouldn’t be able to attend the start of the kindergarten; such was the distressing state of my health. Without food my body couldn’t take the medication necessary to treat my illness and rejected it. The doctor bought my mother a lot of baby food and milk. She told my mother to stop breast feeding me so as to avoid re-infecting me with the virus (there wasn’t much breast milk coming anyway) and to fatten me up as much as possible. My mother did as instructed and my health started to improve. Today I am big and strong as you can see from the video.
I am not a miracle. I am not a work of charity. I am not a poor sick little girl. I am a happy and healthy girl, yes, healthy because I am leading a normal life and with a better understanding and resources to help myself. The same as the other children in my school. We are all well and all happy – no matter our beginnings, health issues or other. We are like all the children of the world should be: loved, properly fed and stimulated. It is no fault of ours that we have been born in one of the poorest parts of the world.
They told me that in July my favorite doctor will be returning to the kindergarten. She will see how much I have changed, she will see the success of how Mediterranea Helps!
