“I moved here from South Africa in 1995, a few months after Nelson Mandela won the presidency in South Africa and the transformation into the New South Africa began. In April, 2006, I became a U.S. citizen.

I have returned fairly often to South Africa. On my last trip, my brother took me and my husband go-carting. While we were there, a double-decker school bus full of children, ranging in ages from toddlers to teenagers, arrived for a fun outing.

I was easily charmed by the children’s friendly smiles and was soon caught up in their laughter and excitement. At one point, a little boy, no more than two years old, boldly walked up to me with big beautiful trusting eyes and held my thumb in his little hand. I realized that he was quietly asking me to help him down a flight of stairs near where I was standing, so that he could go enjoy the fun below.

I marveled that this little boy had not yet learned to fear strangers, that his trust and innocence was still in tact in a country where this is lost all too soon. And I felt honored that he had chosen me to help him.

It was only when I was leaving that I noticed that the bus had the symbol of a red ribbon drawn on its side. When I questioned my brother about it, he explained that all the children who had arrived on the bus were orphans of AIDS victim, that each was themselves infected with HIV (their own deadly birthright), that the problem of AIDS in South Africa is so bad that entire orphanages are dedicated to AIDS victims and that, indeed, there aren’t enough orphanages to go around.

The most terrible thing my brother told me was that each of those children, including the little boy with the big eyes, would soon be dead from AIDS, because there was not enough medicine to go around.

I returned to the U.S.A. determined that somehow, in as many small and big ways that I can, I am going to help make a difference. That is why I joined the ONE Campaign.”

-Nicole Fouche, member of The ONE Campaign, Durham, NC

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