I wasn’t asking to be silly, and I wasn’t asking because I was morbidly curious.
I was asking because I felt an explosive need to protect him. Sure, he was slimy, he was shrill, and he would be the bane of my teenage years, but, in the moment he took his first screeching breath, I felt an unconditional love for him, and the millions of children he represented.
Keller was born a health baby, but, despite the doctor’s reassurances, I thought that he would break at any moment- he was just so small, fragile, and helpless. As he grew, I grew with him. I began to realize the extent of children’s innocence and defenselessness, and I felt an unexplainable desire to watch over and protect every child who was born into damaging circumstances.
This is a recent photo of Keller- there's such life and excitment etched in his face. The idea that there are thousands of kids around the world who do not know this joy breaks my heart.
It was like a wolf had been asleep in my soul for 15 years, was woken by my brother’s piercing cries, and is now howling for action. There is no longer a vague sense of detached compassion within me- there is a fierce passion that recognized childhood as a moment in time we were all entitled to. Thinking about children who are forced to pay for the actions of adults that are supposed to protect them enrages me. Children should not have their innocence crudely snatched away. They should not have to be fatalities of war- whether they are being forced into military service or victims of persecution and genocide. They should not be trafficked for sex or labor, and they should not have to live with diseases like HIV. They should not have to confront poverty, starvation, or abuse, and they should not have to seek answers to questions that are beyond them.
A drawing by a child soilder
Aside from children’s causes, I feel passionately about a lot of things - global warming, nuclear warfare, and the death penalty. However, I don’t feel that my individual crusade to stop these events from happening will have any long-term, lasting effects. I will have spent my entire life battling through corruption and bureaucracy only to end up right where I started. Trying to effect change in issues like halting nuclear proliferation would help no one. No matter how many protests I attended, petitions I signed, and letters I wrote countries would continue to advance their nuclear arsenal. There is no light at the end of the tunnel where these issues are concerned.
However, what differentiates my passion for children’s causes and the ones mentioned above isn’t the degree of passion I feel for them, but it’s the hope that children’s causes inspire in me. Stephen Covey says, passion is “the fire, the desire, the strength of conviction and the drive that sustains the discipline to achieve the vision”. However, I think the later part of this quote is referring to hope. For example, regardless of which children’s cause I champion, I can effect change on a communal, state, national, and international level. Whether I am touching one life or hundreds, I am comforted by the thought that children represent a new generation. And, even if I cannot tangibly change the world for everyone, at least I can help make a better tomorrow for some children.
However, to say I’m championing children’s causes is assigning myself to very general tasks. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of children’s issues one can dedicate themselves to, and, from my experience working with Amnesty International, I know it can be overwhelming and discouraging to try and tackle all of the issues. So, as of today (I say this because my future changes daily), I’ve chosen to pursue an avenue that allows me to entertain two of my passions: children and microbiology. According to The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) there are “over 2.5 million children infected with HIV” (90% of them from Sub-Saharan Africa) , and 420,000 more children are infected yearly . By dedicating myself to the research of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) I can help save the lives of thousands of innocent children who are forced to live with this painful and terrifying disease. Most children who are diagnosed with HIV where infected in one of two ways.
First, they may have gotten it from their infected mother through her blood or breast milk. UNICEF is currently working on a Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission Project (PMCT) which sets up a 4 tier system for communities. The first tier works with community structures to spread awareness of MTCT (mother to child transmission). The second tier provides counseling to women who are infected with HIV, and the third tier works on coaching infected mothers on how not to pass the virus along to their children. The fourth tier calls for better integration of HIV care in rural, underdeveloped countries.
"A woman who is HIV-positive, lies next to her newborn child in V.V. Hospital, in Bangalore. The HIV status of her newborn is not known." - UNICEF
The second way HIV is transmitted to children is through rape. There is a prominent belief in Africa that sex with a virgin- specifically a baby or a child- can “cure” HIV. According to worldnetdaily.com children are the victims of 41% of reported rapes in Africa. Moreover, It is believed that a large percentage of sexual abuse go unreported.
By dedicating my life’s work to AIDS (whether I’m working on a cure, promoting awareness, or serving as a counselor) I know I can help thousands of children. I find it one of the greatest injustices that children who die from AIDS, particularly the one’s who don’t have access to medication, are never given a chance to live and overcome the trials of their circumstances.
Three years ago I felt a certain detachment when it came to the world. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, or that I didn’t want to work for a greater cause, rather it was just that I didn’t know what the right cause was. However, Keller has given me an insight into the world of children’s causes as Joseph Campell advises, I am going “to follow (my) bliss, and (not) be afraid”.
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, Stephen R. Covey
http://www.unicef.org/aids/index_preventionyoung.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25806
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