Race Against Time

Hello, this is Zeubie again.

I had a couple days free last week (you know, I am a busy dog) and read Race Against Time by Stephen Lewis. I wasn't sure whether I should be sad by this book or just angry.

I was going to do a book review, but this book warrants more than a review. It is about the AIDS pandemic in Africa and how we in the west (i.e. the rich nations) have made things worse.

Did you know:

• There will be 25 million children orphaned in Africa by AIDS by 2010?
• There is a new AIDS orphan in Africa every 14 seconds?
• The average age of a child who is in charge of a "Children Led Household" is 8 years old?
• The average African lives on less than one dollar ($1) a day?
• Children (even orphans) have to pay "user fees" to receive education and basic health care - even in the poorest nations?

I could go on and on... it is really sad.

BUT - instead of being sad (or mad) let's do something about it! Get involved. Help spread the word. Talk to a friend. Write an article. Help raise some money for this cause. Donate to The Stephen Lewis Foundation. My Gumpa has even published a book to help out. You can see it here.

So, we can get mad or sad - OR let's help be part of the solution.

I wanna help these kids...