Aids Orphan: Mary's Story

14-year-old Mary lost her mother to AIDS last year, and her father to apathy four years before that. She lives with her cousins – also AIDS orphans – in barely sufficient housing in a South African township.

Through her we discover the extent and effect of the presence and spread of HIV within the sub-Saharan continent (6,000 AIDS-related deaths daily and 1,000 new infections) and what measures are being taken to slow its spread and care for those abandoned in its wake.

This is a complex text, whose dismal burden is made bearable only by being linked to Mary’s own thoughtfully optimistic survival. We learn about the history of African HIV, clinical methods of treatment and detection, and what educational steps are being taken to allow Africans to protect themselves. This is a timely publication – at the end of last year 25.4 million people were living with AIDS or detected HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (in the USA, it’s one million) and yet in Western Europe we’re hardly aware of it.

This is a very sobering read, but essential for all that. The situation is one that compels our charity – thank goodness some organisations are in place to use it.