Ajabu: Clouds of Hope

Abstract

Fig. 1 Receiving the ambulance. Ajabu means extraordinary or wonderful in Swahili. AfJEM publishes non-medical related content such as poetry, prose and art because all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy. These items have to be original, are not peer reviewed and are placed at the discretion of the editor. You can contribute to Ajabu by submitting your original non-medical work as a letter to the editor. Clouds of Hope is synonymous with the work of its founder, Nurse Abigail Ntleko, affectionately known as Sister Abi to everyone in the Underberg, a farming community at the base of the Drakensberg Mountains in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Sister Abi took on her first adoptive child in 1972, a 5-year-old of mixed parentage, shunned by the community, and shortly afterwards took in a 9-month old baby that had been abandoned. In order to provide a home for her new family she built a small house on her parents’ old homestead. By the end of the 1980’s more and more orphans and vulnerable children were coming to Abigail’s attention as family structures broke down under the strain of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. By 1990, Sister Abi had already adopted 22 children. Convinced by her urging and troubled by what they saw happening, concerned local residents called a Public Meeting in 1989 and the Underberg/Himeville Aids Initiative was