Dear friends
If I were to look back on almost twenty years of Kids of Africa and learn just one lesson, it would be this: that love is the strongest force in life and always has the last word. With this in mind, I send you warm Easter greetings. Especially on behalf of our many protégés, over a thousand scholarship holders, employees and the many people who are touched by your support. They all say: “Thank you!”
Hand, heart and mind
To be clear: even in Kids of Africa there are sometimes conflicts, disputes and things have disappeared. We don’t want to gloss over that. We all know that pious calendar slogans about love don’t change the world. Of course they do. But when we help people in existential need, when we give them courage, strength and hope through comforting words and courageous deeds, then the power of love is at work. I have often experienced this in Kids of Africa.
In Uganda, there is often existential hardship – especially for children. Since the pandemic, vicious circles have increased dramatically. When reserves are used up, when people are on the run, ill or helpless, vulnerable children are often left behind. For them – as I have seen time and time again over twenty years – there is no stronger force than love. But it requires not only words, but also deeds. When hand, heart and mind are inspired by the same love, they are unbeatable. Everywhere. We remember this on Easter Day. Also in Kids of Africa.
Happy Easter!
What remains?
Everything we have been doing at Kids of Africa for almost twenty years should also be measured in terms of sustainability. Sustainability is not everything, but it is one of our highest goals. Whether we are providing a family for our protégés or a scholarship for outsiders, it is always about helping people to help themselves.
We support vulnerable children who are among Uganda’s poorest of the poor and can stand on their own two feet. That’s what it’s all about for us. Everything. We support them to become responsible, active Ugandan citizens. So that they can develop their talents and share them with others. This is how good things can be created in the long term. But this is only possible if heart, hand and mind are guided by the same power of love.
The path of love
Once again: Easter love has nothing to do with pious calendar slogans. It expects nothing, it demands nothing and it is precisely from this that it draws existential strength. I know of no more beautiful formulation for it than that of the letter to the Corinthians (13.1-7):
“If I could speak the tongues of men and of angels, but had not love, I would be a clanging brass, a tinkling bell. 2 And if I could prophesy and know all mysteries, if I had all knowledge and a faith that moves mountains, but had not love, I would be nothing. …
… And if I used all my possessions to feed the poor, indeed if I sacrificed myself to become famous but had no love, it would be of no use to me. Love has patience. Love is kind. It knows no envy. It does not make itself important and does not puff itself up; it is not tactless and does not seek itself; it does not allow itself to be provoked and does not resent evil; it does not rejoice when injustice is done, it rejoices when the truth triumphs. She endures everything; she always believes and hopes. She endures everything.”
My warmest regards to you, also on behalf of our protégés.
Always yours
Burkhard Varnholt
