Merry Christmas

Dear Friends

Christmas is on its way. On behalf of all the children and staff at Kids of Africa, I wish you a blessed holiday season, rest and relaxation, and a wonderful celebration.

Recently I read the moving story of Janusz Korczak, a paediatrician and director of an orphanage who, even in the direst of circumstances, sacrificed himself for his ideals and his charges. It is a story of light in the darkness and of the love that gives life its meaning. Is it therefore also a Christmas story? Read for yourself.

Janusz Korczak, whose real name was Henryk Goldszmit (1878–1942), was a Polish paediatrician, children’s book author and important educationalist. After Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939, he became the director of an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto.

On 6 August 1942, 220 children were to be deported from there to the Treblinka concentration camp. Korczak decided to go with them to their deaths. He could have saved himself, but in his diary he rejected the idea of a false sense of sacrifice. He wrote: ‘Anyone who says they are sacrificing themselves for others is lying. I like children. But I don’t see them as victims. I don’t do it for them, I do it for myself. I need it. All this talk of sacrifice is nonsense. It’s nothing but lies and hypocrisy.”

With his diary entry, Korczak makes it clear that love gives the word ‘sacrifice’ a new meaning. Those who love no longer think in terms of loss and weighing up. The other person has been given a place in their heart.

Even those who do not share the biblical hope can enjoy Christmas as a celebration of love, family, friends and peaceful coexistence. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and wish you a Merry Christmas. Stay healthy and enjoy the quiet time.

Kind regards and thank you.

Always yours, Burkhard Varnholt

Our protégés wish you a happy holiday, too!

Giving life with every drop:
our water projects in Uganda