This is What we NEED

Someone once advised me that I should work on my communication skills. He told me that I needed to be more active about telling the world EXACTLY what it is that SWSC needed. I've been here for almost 4 years now. I've known this friend for longer than that and when he came to Kibombomene in September, he told me that it wasn't until he arrived here that he had a better understanding of our needs.

Let me try to be clear today. Today I'm a little frustrated and a lot sad. Today, everything feels like a personal attack. Today, the non-existant health centre in this community hurts me. Today the lack of education and resources hurt me. Today all of the corruption and all of the lies and all of the greed, hurt me. Today, after 4 years I know I am a victim of all of the afore mentioned things, because I am a member of this community.

Today I will tell you what we need RIGHT NOW in Kibombomene. I'm not taking you on a guilt trip and it's not about trying to make you feel sorry for poor little Africa. It is simple about surrendering to who we are supposed to be as human beings. It is our duty. It is our right. It is an optionless choice that we MUST CARE FOR EACH OTHER.

What WE need is a health clinic. We need Doctors (note the plural, because one is not enough). We need nurses. We needs an endless supply of medicine. We need equipment and machines for testing and x-raying and whatever else. We need people who specialize in dentistry and in different diseases and etc, etc, etc. We need a big building. We need beds and other furniture. We need more staff to run the clinic.

We need all of this now because what we have, let me say what I HAVE, is a 17 year old Zambian sister who nearly lost her life last night while giving birth to her already dead baby girl. It happened on a dirt floor under a grass roof.

I don't care if it's the government or some other NGO or a private business; I don't care who it is that builds this thing, but we need to do it together. I understand that this sort of thing also happens in Canada. Babies die and mothers lose their lives, but it shouldn't be like this. It shouldn't happen like that, when the possibilities for improvement are right in front of us. It's not right.

We gotta love each other more than this.