William H.A. “Billy” Willbond MSM, CD
Every minute, a child is infected with HIV and another child dies from an HIV/AIDS related illness. UNICEF says only 5% of HIV-positive children get medical help, and fewer than 10% of the 15 million already orphaned by HIV/AIDS get financial support.ODE TO THE ANGEL OF RURAL BONDO
Mama Ester Ochuodito Odero nurses those about to die
And she tends a subsistence garden, under the African sky
Corn and beans in the rich red earth, chickens round the door
She walks about five miles each day to tend the suffering poor
End Stage Adult HIV ulcers are treated by this wonderful nurse
As people whither, sicken and die, the pandemic is getting worse
In a small mud wattle nyumba/boma that is a patient’s dwelling
Changing dressings, issuing pills, checking limbs for swelling
Ester Odero is 63 she still weeds her garden on bended knee
Tending hives in her tree she collects a crop from the honey bee
An unsung village hero, observed at work by Lynne and me
She tends poor suffering villagers, until death sets them free!
©Copyright February 2, 2004 by Billy Willbond