I have been to a hospital in Africa. The squalor, the stench, the deprivation, are unimaginable. Relatives have to bring the sick food to eat, or they go without. There are no elevators, so you walk the stairs, trying to ignore the stench and the decades-old peeling paint on the wall.
Now, into this context of extreme and pervasive poverty, where there is virtually no medical supplies or facilities, we have well-meaning western groups wanting to flood impoverished HIV/AIDS victims with life-extending drugs. It is all out of proportion. They barely have enough to eat.
There are just as many people who are sick with other ailments -- TB, malaria, etc. who are equally deserving, and yet we apparently care little or nothing for them; only for those inflicted with one particular disease transmitted through sexual promiscuity -- which is absolutely rampant.
I saw one of my students die before my eyes, in a public ward with about 40 other sick or dying patients. There was no money for care or treatment. Facilities were practically non-existent. The aid being suggested by the West is out of all proportion to the situation.
The only message that will save Africa is one of sexual responsibility involving abstinence before marriage and faithfulness within it. Period. And, that's the only message they can afford.
1 comment:
You know what you are writing about and I would like to see it carried to the public,government, or whatever.
I can mention it but my blog doesn't carry any weight. Have you any suggestions?
Do we bombard someone? Who? See this is what the general public knows about the problem.
Our "shoeboxes" bring cheer to children but that doesn't really touch the problem of the ill and dying.
Oh, it is so depressing, and so sad.
Keep this before the public and your readers.
Betty G
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