Thandi’s Loss: One Child Among Millions
07 March 2012
By Davison Zhou: Thandi is a tall gorgeous young girl with a dark glittering complexion. Her eyes are dark brown and perfectly fitted her slim face. If you look through her eyes, you can actually see her soul which testifies to the saying that the eye is the window of the soul.
Thandi’s parents passed away some five years ago and she and her two younger brothers were left in the care of their elderly grandparents. Their parents died just months apart, due to HIV/AIDS. The little money that came from their father’s terminal illness benefits was used to pay the traditional healer who was hired to remove the “spell” that threatened to wipe away this poor family. The healer also took five head of cattle which left them with no tools to till the land that provided their only source of sustenance.
Thandi and her two brothers have all dropped out of school because the grandparents could not afford the high tuition costs. They have to work hard to get food so they can take good care of their grandchildren whom they love dearly. In their eyes the children are the hope for their future and they carry the name and legacy of the family. The family wakes up before dawn so they can work before the sun gets too hot. After hours of toil, the family sits down under the shade of a tree to enjoy maheu, a traditional brew that helps to quench their thirst after sweating in the hot sun. The fields are far away from their home, hence they spend the whole day out there and they return before dusk to prepare and eat their only meal for the day.
The youngest brother has always been sick since he was a baby. It appears he is HIV positive but nobody knows exactly. The family lives in a remote rural village of Southern Africa. Each time they visit the nearest clinic, they get only panadol to ease the pain. The people who test for HIV/AIDS come once every quarter. If you miss them, it means you have to wait for three to four months and in the meantime the drugs often run out. Even the government seems to have forgotten about these poor souls. The last time they saw their member of parliament was when he wanted their votes. People often ask where is God in all this mess.
The family has set their eyes on Thandi as the only hope for their survival. If she gets married to a rich man in the village, he might help the family. They are thinking of an arranged marriage to someone with four other wives. She doesn’t love him but it makes perfect sense that she is the redeemer of the only family she has ever known and loved. Her other brother had also suggested that Thandi should go and sell her body at the township so that they could buy food. They attend a local Catholic church and nobody seems to care about helping this vulnerable and needy family. People, Christian brothers and sisters, always make false promises. They tell this family to go in peace, and they will be praying for Thandi’s family. Isaiah says, “The poor and the needy search for water but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst, but I the Lord will answer them. I the God of Israel will not forsake them” (Isaiah 41: 17).
Thandi has no Bible and neither do any of the people in her family. They want to believe in God but they are not sure how to find Him. The traditional (custom) religion teaches that God is so far away He can only be reached by those who have gone before us through death. They often go to the silent graves to ask their parents to petition their plight with this spirit known as God. How are they going to know the way to God unless someone tells them. All they see is gloom and death gnashing its teeth to devour them one by one. “Now, O women, hear the word of the Lord, open your ears to the words of His mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament. Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses. It has cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares” (Jeremiah 9:20–21 NIV).
Throughout the whole world, many children like Thandi and her two brothers suffer from the effects of corruption, poverty, hunger, greed and disease. Most of these calamities are caused by our own selfishness and lack of care and love for our neighbor. We see these situations daily but our senses have become numbed to the point that we no longer react to the plight of the orphans and vulnerable children around us. The solution to this problem is at the tips of our fingers and God has shown us how we can help. He holds us responsible for the four corners of our world that is the people around us. “The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. ‘What should we do then?’” …we ask. The answer: “The person who has two tunics should share with someone who has none, and one who has food should do the same” (Luke 3:9–11NIV).
Children like Thandi become prostitutes not by choice but as a way to earn a living. I speak to some of the girls in the area where I work and they tell me that it is better to die of AIDS than to die of hunger. What they do at night, thinking that they are hiding from their communities, is a taboo that brings shame and ridicule to their families and society. They know it’s wrong and in a perfect world they would not do it, but they do it anyway.
The first thought that comes to mind for people like me is to rebuke, shun and pass judgment yet they are crying for your help and mine. Unscrupulous men and women deceive these young ones to engage in sexual activities with people they don’t love on the pretext of helping. One girl was told that if she wanted to save the life of her sick uncle, she had to sleep with him, since his illness is treatable by sleeping with a virgin girl. In this case, it was HIV/AIDS and they both died. What a way to solve societal problems!
The boys resort to crime not because they are criminals. They just want to get a meal for the day. One boy admitted that he had killed a man who had resisted his effort to steal a car from him. According to this boy, people should let him steal from those he perceives to be rich because they will compensation from their insurance companies. They think the world should be this way because they don’t have an education; hence they can’t find a job. The shocking result is that we continue to loose parents and grandparents to HIV/AIDS and if we don’t act now, none of us will be safe because these desperate people live next door to us. Either they will die the same way their parents died or they will kill people and we will continue to arrest them and fill our prisons.
We cannot continue to watch and complain about how much our governments have become corrupt and not help the needy. You and I can make a difference by rescuing one child at a time. These children are poor innocent souls, deeply loved by our heavenly Father. Above all, He knows about them and their plight. God wants you to partner with the many organizations that seek to help our world be a better place for everyone created in His image.
