Posted March 3, 200718 yr http://images.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2007091705,00.jpg AS Sugababe Keisha Buchanan breaks into song, a small army of adoring faces gazes up at her. But the singer is not performing for fans at a concert or star-studded awards bash. Instead she is standing on a dusty, pot-holed track entertaining a group of impoverished children in a run-down township on the outskirts of Durban, South Africa. The children laugh and joyfully sing along with the familiar pop tune, but their smiles hide a more painful reality. Just moments before, Keisha had met 12-year-old Nokwanda, who was raped three years earlier by a man living in her community before being abandoned by her family. The instant connection forged between the pair was clear when Nokwanda leaned in close to whisper into the pop star’s ear. After their meeting, Keisha broke down in tears when she revealed what the little girl had told her. “She said, ‘I wish you could visit all the time, why do you have to go?’ It broke my heart, what can you say to that? I know I will see her lovely smiling face in my dreams for ever.†Keisha, 22, continued: “Meeting children like her makes me understand why Madonna felt compelled to adopt. It is definitely something I would consider one day.†The singer flew to South Africa with 23-year-old bandmate Heidi Range and Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh, 25, to visit just a few of the vital projects funded by Comic Relief. he two girl bands have joined forces to record a cover of the Run DMC classic Walk This Way as this year’s Comic Relief single. In the township of Richmond Farm, the girls learned about The Muthande Society For The Aged, which works to improve the lives of older people living in poverty. In Britain, HIV is not perceived as a disease that affects the elderly. But in South Africa the spectre of Aids haunts everyone. Shockingly, a 2004 survey found that South Africans spent more time at FUNERALS in a year than they did shopping. Out of a population of 47 million, more than five million South Africans aged between 15 and 49 are living with HIV. And as an entire generation is ravaged by the Aids pandemic sweeping the continent, the job of caring for the sick and dying often falls to older members of the community. In Richmond Farm the girls visited the home of 62-year-old grandmother Dorothy Nzimel, who is HIV positive. They heard how she contracted the disease while caring for her daughter Nonhlanhla, who died last October. Dorothy said: “The information I had about my daughter’s sickness was very poor. I nursed her but caught it through blood contact. “I also nursed my daughter Nomphumelela through the same sickness. She died three years ago and left two sons. They are 18 and 19. “I pay the rent on their house using my pension. I can’t think about what will happen after I go — the worry would give me a heart attack.†In the rural area of Tafelkop, the girls visited the home of Thombile Nsindani, 70, who lives in a dilapidated hut with a tin roof where she cares for her 16 grandchildren, six of them orphans. Her daughters Nomkhosi and Zodwa both died of Aids within the past three years. Sugababe Heidi said: “Visiting their home was truly humbling. They had virtually nothing, just some bags of rice and straw mats on the floor. I found it difficult to find the right words to say.†Part of Comic Relief’s funding of Muthande has allowed the charity to set up a small work room where they can make school uniforms to give to hard-up grandparents caring for orphans. Girls Aloud’s Kimberley said: “Giving someone a uniform might not seem much, but when you are here you realise it is the small things that matter. “It means a child who has already been through an ordeal like losing a parent won’t have to feel like the odd one out at school.†In the impoverished township of Umlazi the girls called on Tholakele Maseko, 34, and listened in stunned silence to her story. Cradling daughter Lusanda, four, HIV positive Tholakele told how she struggled to raise her children alone since her husband died of Aids in 2005. Lusanda and her year-old sister Nosipho also have the disease. Tholakele is struggling but gets help from local charity Zimisele Health, which is partly funded by Comic Relief. Tholakele’s own family have shunned her because she is HIV positive, so the Zimisele care workers have been a lifeline. Once again, Heidi was visibly moved as she heard of the the mother-of-five’s plight. She said afterwards: “It was heartbreaking — she was sick and so were her babies. She didn’t even have family support and wasn’t getting money from the government. “But she wasn’t complaining or feeling sorry for herself. She was just getting on with things. I just sat there feeling helpless. Yet she thanked us for what we were doing for Comic Relief.†Keisha added: “I am a perfectionist and always worry if a single or video could have been better. But with the Comic Relief song, the only thing I care about is how much it raises
March 5, 200718 yr Author Its a brilliant article , them three are gunna look so good on comic relief night
