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May 19, 2006
Lessons of East Africa
Our actions are the antidote to indifference.
RABBI LEE BYCEL AND DR. H. ERIC SCHOCKMAN
We have just returned from a mission to East Africa under the auspices
of the International Medical Corps (IMC), a global humanitarian
nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering
through health-care training and relief and development programs.
IMC has been a long-time grantee of Mazon: A Jewish Response to
Hunger, in which we both serve.
Most groups go to Kenya on safari. We went to Kibera, an urban slum
in Nairobi. It is estimated that more than one million people live
in two square miles, making Kibera the largest urban slum in sub-Saharan
Africa. With a prolonged draught in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and
southern Sudan, entire towns are now deserted, as people flee famine
and starvation and wind up in slums like Kibera.
No region of the world has been as devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic
as sub-Saharan Africa, home to nearly 30 million of the world's
40 million HIV/AIDS-infected people. Close to 60 per cent of those
who are HIV-positive in the area are women.
IMC has been working in Kibera to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission
from mother to child and to provide a peer-based mentoring program
for HIV-positive women. We sat for hours with many of these HIV-positive
women and listened to stories of sexual assault, rape and exploitation,
which, in many cases, account for the spread of the AIDS pandemic.
We visited their cramped mud shelters, devoid of sanitation facilities
and sources of clean water. We learned that the AIDS drug "cocktail"
was actually reaching affected Kenyans, but without access to nutrition-rich
foods and safe water, HIV/AIDS deaths, especially among children,
continue to rise. And those who survive are surviving alone: UNICEF
estimates that HIV/AIDS has left more than two million children
orphaned in Kenya alone.
We emerged from Kibera not with despair and a sense of powerlessness,
but quite the contrary. We know that the humanitarian community
has not walked away and, in fact, is toiling every day to bring
hope and better living conditions, to empower women and to heighten
awareness and inspire change in local communities. Saving lives
and relieving suffering is a joint responsibility and history has
shown that broken models of "development" require long-term
fixes that increase self-reliance and foster real sustainable development.
The second part of our journey took us to Kigali, where the people
of Rwanda observed the 12th commemoration of that nation's horrific
genocide. Eight hundred thousand Rwandans were killed in 100 days.
That event seems unfathomable now, but the pain in Kigali is still
raw. At various memorial ceremonies, adults and children wailed
at the loss of loved ones, devastated families and man's inhumanity
to man. The uncontrollable wailing of the women still haunts us
– the mourning of their losses from 12 years ago was palpable.
The slaughter took place while most of the world stood by as dispassionate
observers. We came to Kigali to learn more about this tragic legacy
and to explore our own role in it. Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia,
Rwanda and now Darfur – why do we continue to repeat this narrative?
Why does history show our indifference to be so profound?
Indifference is like an untreated cancer, spreading through our
hearts, minds and souls. As Martin Luther King wrote, "The
day we see the truth and cease to speak is the day we begin to die."
We must fight our apathy and cultivate a society in which people
act courageously, speak out and pursue justice.
We left Kigali committed to helping cure this widespread plague
of indifference. Rwanda and Kenya inform us, trouble us and –-
hopefully – stir us to reevaluate and strengthen the ethical
and social framework of our societies. We must act, nurturing our
own humanity and taking responsibility. Our personal actions and
our collective deeds are the antidote to indifference.
Rabbi Lee Bycel is senior advisor, global strategy, of
International Medical Corps and a board member of Mazon: A Jewish
Response to Hunger. Dr. H. Eric Schockman is the president
of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger.
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