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The smallest AIDS victims
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:1-3, NRSV). Eight-year-old Zizo would much rather talk about her favorite pastimes — playing with dolls and watching TV — than about her feelings. But if pressed, she will confess that, well, she did feel kind of excited when she attended an uncle’s wedding a few weeks ago. And that sometimes it makes her sad that she cannot go to school. The reason she doesn’t go to school anymore is because the other kids tease her. It’s obvious she is sick. “Sometimes children are not sensitive about how other children feel, and they say hurtful things,” said Zizo’s grandmother, Pule Tshangela. “But in my family, all the children look after Zizo.”
In South Africa, the question isn’t how children are crossing boundaries. The fact is that the very boundaries of childhood itself have been crossed — invaded, really. The AIDS pandemic that has swept through the adult population of the continent has cut a similarly devastating swath through its children. And for one mission worker involved in ministries with those children, their presence sheds new light on the scriptural injunction found in Matthew 18. “I don’t think I had ever really understood that passage — or related ones where Jesus tells us to take on the role of a servant — until living here,” said Lynell Bergen, who has served through Mennonite Mission Network in various ministries in South Africa with her husband, Brian Dyck, since 1999. According to Bergen, the devastation is seen in the vast numbers of children who turn up abandoned in hospitals or public places. Many have had to leave school because their parents are too ill to work to earn school fees. Many others will die of AIDS. Still others are raped because of the myth that sex with a virgin can cure AIDS, said Bergen. By some estimates, there are now some 244,000 children in South Africa living with HIV. Some 37,000 babies were born HIV-positive last year, with an additional 26,000 infected through breast milk. (Zizo became infected with HIV at birth or shortly thereafter this way.) At least 1.1 million have been orphaned, with an unknown percentage under the age of 12 serving as the head of the household. Several years ago Bergen and Dyck began working with the Transkei AIDS Support Organization, which initially worked to equip leaders in Africa-Inititiated Churches to do AIDS counseling and teaching. Local teaching and counseling programs have sprung from these initial efforts. Bergen and Dyck have become more involved with children’s ministries in the past two to three years. “Somehow a child in need is so much more heartbreaking than an adult in need,” Bergen said. “You know they have no power to change their situation. In a hierarchical society, everyone has their position, and no one in their right mind would voluntarily give up their position for a lower one.” In African culture, she said, there is often the expectation that adult needs come before children’s. Among people for whom starvation was — and at times still is — a real threat, it is important that the adults survive. “When Jesus is asking his disciples, and us, to ‘become like children,’ he is not talking about being sweet and innocent but about giving up power,” Bergen said. The children she sees exhibit a special humility. “They have few expectations,” she said. “Everything they are given (whether it is attention, smiles, or school uniforms) is a marvelous gift for them.” She recalled taking a bag of small toys to a group of rural children with AIDS. Each child was invited to take a toy, but all of the school-age children wanted only a pen or a pencil. Without it, they couldn’t do their homework. “They were extremely grateful to have a pen or pencil,” she said. Still, Bergen wonders about the future. South Africa now hosts an entire generation of “lost children,” she said. What kind of society will there be in 10 or 20 years when these lost children reach adulthood, without education or social resources to help them find contributing roles in society? As for Zizo, she would like to be a doctor. “I want to help people who are sick,” she says. Does she believe such a dream may be possible? Zizo may or may not understand statistics, but she does know about doctors. And like any other child, she has hopes for the future. So she answers, with childlike simplicity, with a single word: “Yes.” Also in this issue: Features Highlights Highlights |
