Kayole Slum: Three Infant Boys

Their names are Moses, Michael and Boniface. All three are infant boys, each younger than two years old. All three have AIDS. All three were infected through childbirth.

We were told that their life expectancy is no more than five years. In a sense, their short clocks started ticking right as they were born. In another sense, they were stillborn. This horrific woe claims victims before they even have a chance to start living this side of the womb.

Michael and Boniface’s parents died of the disease, leaving them as orphans. Shortly after Moses lost his father to AIDS, he was riding in a vehicle with his mother. It was involved in a terrible accident that instantly claimed her life. Moses was found sitting in her blood, the same blood that had imparted a death sentence upon him when he first entered into the world.

(Image: Moses)

The boys have a severe rash all over their bodies. Their immune systems cannot fight off even the simplest of conditions. This is one of the cruelest realities of AIDS in the developing world. It isn’t just a bane that shortens the lifespan of individuals, but also one that torments them with relentless discomfort and pain in the meantime.

It is a blight that shows no mercy. It is an affliction that has no conscience. It orphans a child without remorse. It shamelessly continues to terrorize infant boys who are already motherless and fatherless because of it.

Comments

[Sarah]

How greatly devastating are the sins of this world accompanied by the consequences that harm those of innocence.

[Cheri]

Jesus said, "I have overcome the world." Please come to the rescue of these children, Lord!