Each December, when winter arrives in its white coat with a promise of holiday celebrations, we begin to think about a few numbers. We could our blessings; we count the 12 days of Christmas; and we number the days, minutes and seconds remaining until the New Year. But the numbers take a staggering turn of sobriety on the African Continent, where every day, another 2,600 pe... (展开全部) Each December, when winter arrives in its white coat with a promise of holiday celebrations, we begin to think about a few numbers. We could our blessings; we count the 12 days of Christmas; and we number the days, minutes and seconds remaining until the New Year. But the numbers take a staggering turn of sobriety on the African Continent, where every day, another 2,600 people die from AIDS. They leave behind not only their own lives, but the lives of their many children, who face a hungry, crumbling future of fear and despair. In South Africa's north-eastern Nkomazi region, one of the hardest hit by AIDS, more than 3,000 orphans struggle for life. From tiny toddlers to teenage girls whose eyes have lost their spark in despair, they crowd into one-room cement huts - or find no home at all. Ten and eleven year olds nail together wooden strips to make crude coffins for the next deaths. Brothers and sisters try to band together - but find themselves overwhelmed by the desperate search for food, shelter and medicine in a land forgotten by promise. There is also hope, however, for these 3,000 orphans. With the help of others, their lives can be turned around, the dark days made light again with compassion and understanding. During the past year, Music for Life and the African Children's Choir have been working hard to raise funds for emergency food, water containers, wheelbarrows and medical supplies. Extensive Music for Life camps provide orphans under 12 with medical care, nutritional assistance, trauma counselling and music therapy. Already these camps have begun to heal and help. Here, the Nkomazi Choir proudly presents WHEN A CHILD IS BORN, recorded specially for the holidays, from the album's title track, where "a ray of hope flickers in the sky" to "you are the shepherd," a reflection of faith in Christ, it is a deeply touching work of art that uplifts its listeners - and the children of it provenance. A truly unique holiday album, it inspires us to pause in our counting and ruminate on what really counts. And it begins to change what happens when a child is born in the Nokomazi region of South Africa.
