In keeping with our promise, we started the Fountains of Light Foundation. We want to show our commitment to our community and our people and to prove that we truly see hope in Africa and the people of Zambia.
The children of Africa are the fountains of light. When I look into their eyes, I see hope. They are bound to illuminate the whole continent of Africa: the so-called Ïdark continent".
I was so lucky to leave Africa when I did and to be able to return. I have been able to restore hope to some of the people.
I left Zambia in the late 1980s, when AIDS was just showing its ugly head on the continent. I moved to Canada and followed the stories about AIDS and its devastation in the media like most of us in North America. It never hit me until I went back to Zambia in 1998. I found that over 80 percent of my childhood friends were gone. Most of them had died from HIV/AIDS.
When people say the situation is beyond comprehension, they are telling the truth. Africa is dying while the world looks on.
I talked with friends about what was happening in our home village Machaya in Zambia. We realized that we could not help the ones who had died, so we decided to help the ones who remained: their children. We saw children dropping out of school because they could not pay the school fees. They were traumatized by the death of their parents, and they faced stigma from their extended families and community.
We promised to create a community school that would educate orphaned children, provide a safe shelter, eliminate prejudice and discrimination,and focus on empowering the future generations of women in Africa.