Recently and randomly, a lot of people have asked me about my time in Africa last summer, which has got me thinking a lot about it. I miss Africa, I miss the simplicity of the life and I miss how you could change a kid’s whole world by just smiling at him, or showing kindness of any kind.

In our busy, over-scheduled lives it’s easy to make things overly complicated, and thinking about my time in Namibia reminds me to keep it simple and smile.

Here is an article I wrote for my church newsletter that sums up a few of the things I learned in Africa:

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”   — Mother Teresa

In June, I left my comfortable life in New York City to spend every day looking into the faces of African children whose eyes were previously clouded in the poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for because the HIV/AIDS pandemic had claimed their parents, grandparents and extended relatives, leaving them to be one of the 128,000 orphans in Namibia.

However, because of the work of a few women who created Hope’s Promise Orphan Ministries Namibia (HPOMN), these orphaned and vulnerable children now have faces of joy and futures full of hope because Hope’s Promise rescued them and placed them within the care of foster families where they can continue their education and develop as a whole person within the context of a Christian family.

Former FAPC member, Brenda Johnston and Sylvia Beukes started Hope’s Promise Orphan Ministries Namibia after both had served the orphaned and vulnerable children of Namibia in their roles as house mothers in separate, independent children’s homes.  By serving as house mothers at these homes, Johnston and Beukes recognized the great need to start an organization that would place orphaned children in a family rather than in an institution.  In June 2003, Hope’s Promise Orphan Ministries Namibia was registered as a recognized, Namibian welfare organization (WO209). Since 2003, 75 children have been successfully placed in foster homes, 90 percent of which are placed with the expectation of permanency.

As part of HPOMN’s mission to turn orphaned and vulnerable children into contributing members of the Namibian society, education is a cornerstone to developing the whole child and thus the Talitha-Kumi Academy was created to serve pre-school/kindergarten through sixth grade students, providing educational services geared particularly towards orphaned and vulnerable children who, because of their life experiences, often need more individualized attention and specialized instruction if they are to succeed academically and break the cycle of poverty to take control of one’s own life.

It was at this school that I spent most of my time volunteering with the first grade students and saw the futures of these children grow brighter than their high wattage smiles when they truly learned to understand the lesson and grasp new concepts. In this caring classroom environment, the children are no longer orphans, they are students surrounded by a caring community of people who help them grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Every day, children are growing and changing because they are empowered by knowledge and supported through the strength of Christian homes.

The children of Namibia have inherited a country that has been devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is why HPOMN exists in this country of 2 million people, 60 percent of which are under the age of 14 and often orphaned by HIV/AIDS that keeps the average Namibian life expectancy at only 39 years old. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Namibia is 19.6%, which is much higher than the prevalence rate in the Sub Sahara Africa region overall (7.5%) and the global rate (1.1%). HPOMN is working to eliminate the poverty of the unwanted, unloved and uncared for by giving orphaned and vulnerable children the opportunity to grow up in a Christian home, becoming a generation of Namibians who are well rounded, educated, balanced and contributing adults to the Namibian society.

The work of HPOMN grows more challenging every day as more and more children are left orphaned by the rising tide of HIV/AIDS and their need for supplies and resources grows according to each new face to feed, each new mind to educate and each new child to spiritually develop.

I spent only 5 weeks in Africa, but the experience has left an indelible print on my heart, on my mind and in my life. No longer is HIV/AIDS a disease affecting those unknown to me; it is now personal because it has touched and deeply affected the lives of every child I grew to love in Namibia, and I will continue to support the work of HPOMN to redeem the lives of the orphaned and vulnerable children throughout Namibia.