Posted on 07/17/2004 4:47:11 AM PDT by Clive
Dear Family and Friends,
On Thursday morning it was bitterly cold in Marondera. Through thick mist and an icy wind, a friend and I went visiting in a high density suburb just behind Marondera town.
In two long, thin buildings that face each other and had once been pink but were now dirty brown, there were twenty four doors, and we stood outside one waiting to go in. I looked around, not so that I could soak in the sight but to force my brain to accept what my eyes would not believe.
There was one leaking tap in a muddy hollow in the barren yard. This is the water supply for twenty four families - for washing, cooking, cleaning and bathing. There was one outside concrete sink in which people do all their washing. It does not have a drain and the dirty water simply pours out onto the ground and sits in filthy, slimy puddles in front of the block of communal toilets.
When the door opened we saw Christopher. He is dying of Aids and being nursed through his last days and weeks by his wife. Christopher was too weak to even raise his head from the bed but he tried to smile and greeted us in a whisper, leaving his wife to do the talking.
This one room, perhaps 3 metres square, is their entire home. It does not have water or a bathroom or toilet and has only one small window in the back wall. At the bottom of the bed was a huge pile of soiled bedclothes, waiting to be washed in the outside concrete sink. In a bucket of cold water by the bed were Christopher's soiled clothes, also waiting to be washed outside.
There was no spare linen to put back on the bed and no plastic sheeting with which to protect the mattress and so Christopher lay on top of a folded cloth, rags wrapped around his waist, a thin blue blanket on top of his 20 kg body. On the floor was a small tin baby bath into which Christopher's wife would lift her husband when we had gone and try and bath him. She has only one disposable glove and carefully took it off as we stood talking.
Christopher is 36 years old and is the father of five children, four of whom have been sent to live in the rural areas with their grandparents so that they do not have to see their father dying like this.
Christopher does not take anti retro virals, he could never afford them and now his body is too weak to be able to handle them. He used to support his wife and children and worked as a security guard until he became too sick to continue. Then his wife supported the family by selling tomatoes and bananas on the road-side, but now all day, every day she is at home, caring for her husband, watching him die. They have no income, no drugs, no support and only the food given to them by well wishers.
It is tragic to know that Christopher is one of the lucky ones in Marondera because he has someone to care for him. There are thousands more like him, lying in their own faeces and vomit behind filthy doors in freezing, dark rooms, alone, unseen and waiting to die. I visited one, and frankly the sight was so appalling that I cannot find the words to describe the hell I saw.
When I got home from visiting Christopher I knew that I had to do something, anything, to help the Aids victims and their carers and families in my home town - it would be criminal not to. Together with a lawyer, a doctor and a small group of friends we have started the Christopher Campaign in Marondera. We know that it is probably too late for Christopher but it is not for thousands of others like him. People who ask for nothing but whose eyes plead for a little comfort and dignity.
Anything you can do to help us will be appreciated, nothing will be wasted, diverted or sold. If you can spare one pair of disposable gloves, one bar of soap or one tube of antiseptic, please contact me. If you can put this letter up in your church, office or club, we will be so grateful. If you would like to help in any way at all, please email me at cbuckle@mango.zw .
If you would like to donate even one dollar, the Christopher Campaign wants and needs your help. The Rotary Club of Marondera have very kindly agreed to receive donations for the Christopher Campaign through their registered charity and their banking details are at the end of this letter.
Nelson Mandela recently said that "millions of people are in danger of being reduced to mere numbers," because of Aids. Christopher is no longer a number to me and this letter is for him.
Until next week, with love, cathy.
The Christopher Campaign,
Rotary Club of Marondera,
Barclays Bank, Marondera, Zimbabwe.
Account Number: 1534957
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You must not read very much of what this lady posts. If there is any doubt about her veracity, just read her postings over the last year... but be prepared to wonder why nothing is being done about Zimbabwe... where thousands are starving to death, daily, for politics! Then pray for them, and send a buck or two!
Simply use search terms "Cathy Buckle" for her letters and "Zimbabwe" for other articles on Zim.
Let me know if you want to be added to my Africa/Zimbabwe ping list.
Simply use search terms "Cathy Buckle" for her letters and "Zimbabwe" for other articles on Zim.
Let me know if you want to be added to my Africa/Zimbabwe ping list.
Parts of her letter this week sound like scenes out of Havana, Cuba.
Thank you for the post.
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