There Is No Me Without You

"There is No Me Without You: One Women's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children" by Melissa Fay Greene

This book was a great read. It is about the millions of orphans in Africa. They have been left orphans due to the AIDS epidemic. It is about how there are so many children without anyone to care for them, many that have AIDS themselves. There is no one to take these forgotten children. One woman in Africa becomes a foster mom to many, willing to take the unwanted. At first she takes in just one child then word spreads and soon she has 35 or more. "Who was going to raise twelve million children? Who will wake in the night in response to eighteen million nightmares?" "In Africa a generation of parents, teachers, principals, physicians, nurses, professors, spiritual leaders, musicians, poets, bureaucrats, coaches, farmers, bankers, and business owners are being erased." AIDS is wiping out a whole nation and it can be stopped. But, "Unfortunately for most of the world's 34 million people infected with HIV [in 2000], pharmaceutical companies impose US prices on the rest of the world." "Adoption is good, but children, naturally, would prefer not to see their parents die." "The adopted children would lose their country, people, faith, language, culture, and history. But the adopted child would gain the one thing on earth arguable worth more than a homeland: family." This book had many interesting facts about Africa, AIDS and the orphans. It was encouraging to see how many of these children have been adopted abroad and given a family and a second chance. It shows that one person who cares can really make a difference.