Now in Paperback....

Melissa Fay Greene's "There is No Me Without You" is now in paperback. I'm thrilled because there will be another round of book tours by Melissa, more interviews about the subject, and additional attention paid to what this book is about. I believe everyone should read it. I really do. Everyone. This book. Now.
Here's why:
Today, 5,760 children will lose a parent because of AIDS.

There are over 12 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa.

There are five million AIDS orphans in Ethiopia.

There are over 100,000 AIDS orphans in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.

I read this book in January, absorbing the story, the statistics, and the realities of it, while at the same time feeling shocked that I really knew very little about the orphan crisis. Where has this story been? Twelve MILLION orphans? And the numbers are climbing. By 2010, the number of AIDS orphans could reach 25 million. That absolutely cannot be right. These children are dying in great numbers because there is no one to care for them. They are languishing in orphanages, many of which do not have the resources to adequately care for them. Some of these children are heads of households, caring for younger siblings and they simply cannot feed themselves and their families. And the ones who are in places where they are physically well taken care of are growing up without a mother or a father. They are true orphans. Beyond the numbers and the horror of this pandemic, however, is the story of someone who simply could not sit around and do nothing. So she did something. Melissa tells this story in her book.

Every 24 seconds, a child in sub-Saharan Africa is orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF says this: "The silence that surrounds children affected by HIV/AIDS and the inaction that results is morally reprehensible and unacceptable. If this situation is not addressed, and not addressed now with increased urgency, millions of children will continue to die, and tens of millions more will be further marginalized, stigmatised, malnourished, uneducated, and psychologically damaged."

I have linked Melissa's website in my Do Something (to the right). Melissa, in many ways, has helped to break this silence with her book. And she continues to speak out for the children. She has brought them into her home and her heart, and helped those of us who have heard the story to also break the silence along with her.