Our Responsibility

A few days ago our group visited a home in Gugulethu that belongs to a woman named Priscilla.  She is an older woman who has 2 daughters of her own but has also taken in 10 orphans.  In order to take on the responsibility of 10 other kids, you might think that Priscilla has a decent amount of money, but this is not the case.  She took in these children not to be able to introduce them to wealth and riches, but rather to give them a consistent place to call home and to be treated with undying love and care.

Our group visited Priscilla's home and made her never ending family lunch and gave the kids toys.  We were told how much the sandwiches mattered since it's not uncommon for the kids to come home to no food.  As the afternoon continued I got a tour of Priscilla's home by Edwin, the director of the JL Zwane center.  Although there were beds in the home, some kids still had to sleep on the floor.  The roof was made of tin and was so old that rain constantly drips through the holes.  All the kids' clothes was shoved into one barrel.  Although they did have running water, it was of course always cold.  There was newspaper on top of the toilet to be used for toilet paper and the young women of the house had no other option but to be creative with how to take care of their monthly feminine issues.  The refrigerator was of course empty and there weren't even enough blankets to go around.  Edwin told me that he really wanted to redo Priscilla's home that would accommodate all the children that she keeps accepting into her home.  He said he prays for the day that this dream comes true.

I left Priscilla's home with so many thoughts running through my mind.  A conversation that I had with my mother back in the states kept replaying in my head.  I had asked her what drives her to continue doing so much philanthropy work and her response is something I'll never forget.  She simply said, "It's not a choice for me anymore.  I've seen the poverty in the world enough that I can't just do nothing.  It isn't a choice, it is our responsibility."  As I was driving away from Priscilla's home and seeing all the kids with their new toys in one hand and their other hand excitingly waving goodbye, I felt this overwhelming feeling of responsibility.  I knew that whether to do more to help Priscilla was no longer a choice.  It is our personal responsibility.

I'm excited to say that our group has decided to raise money in a variety of ways this summer to redo Priscilla's home.