Dear friends,
With warm regards from our children, I hope you’re having a lovely Sunday morning. We celebrated Easter in Uganda last week. We celebrated the blessing and gift of life, and our little community.
And: we celebrated the arrival of a new, young child in our care.
A fresh start, filled with hope
A three-day-old baby boy, found helplessly abandoned by the side of the road and taken from there to the police, is now to be given a fresh start at Kids of Africa at the urgent request of the guardianship authority.
The Lighthouse and Life
Twenty years of Kids of Africa fill us with gratitude and humility. The little village is a great gift. It shines both within and without, like a lighthouse in stormy seas.
Twenty years of Kids of Africa also serve as a reminder that, at the start of our lives, we are all merely recipients, as the lottery of life deals us either a good, mediocre or poor start. Those who live here have been dealt a poor hand. And yet, that start is not destiny; the path to the finish line remains open.
Even when we stumble, we must remain hopeful. Setbacks can make us stronger. We can learn from our mistakes. And, as the saying goes, when the night is at its darkest, the morning is just around the corner. Our children know a thing or two about that. And that is precisely what Easter, which we celebrated last week, is all about.
William Henley (1849–1903) also speaks of resilience in the face of life’s storms in his famous poem ‘Invictus’ (‘Unconquered’), which is well known to many in Africa. It was Nelson Mandela’s ‘favourite poem’, which he recited regularly during his 27 years in prison. One of our young people recited it last weekend. I have attached it for you.
Today we are proud of all our young people. They are overcoming their challenges and forging their own paths. Energetic, dignified and confident. Together with them, we look forward to our new guests and to the next twenty years. As we all know, great things start small.
With warm and belated Easter greetings
Yours always, Burkhard Varnholt, on behalf of our Kids of Africa community
And here is the famous poem ‘Invictus’
by William Henley (1849–1903):
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
