Story
A world apart, a world together
There's a lot of hardship in the world. Poverty, hunger, pain, and violence stalk the earth. In one remote corner of South Africa, the tiny villiage of iNzinga is as bruised as it gets. The people there are often starving, the shelter isbleak,and diseases like AIDS splatter the community in sickness. It's a hard life.
Now imagine being a young, well-fed, healthy American girl last year with her father traveling to Africa. There is hardship all around you, and it's very frightening. Miranda Lynch of Atlanta, Georgia found herself in this situation in August of last year.
"My father and I came to Nzinga with the plan to help. We weren't quite sure exactly how we wanted to do that when we got there," Miranda, now 15, shares. After the first night, Miranda wanted to go home. "When I arrived, it hit me that I was going to be living in a world where where we ate a limited amount of corn meal and beans every day. A world where if you were lucky enough, you could kill a chicken for dinner and eat every ounce of it so your money didn't go to waste. A world where I slept in a mud hut. That was a very scary thought. It was hard to adjust to those living conditions."
But then Miranda met a two-year-old girl, whom she was living with at the time."She didn't speak a word of English but part of me thinks that brought us closer together.She could never say my name and one day I heard her yelling, "Isipho! Isipho!" and when I turned around, she was pointing at me."
It was at this moment that Miranda realized she needed to do more to help. She started a charity, called, of course, Isipho, which means "gift".
Later, when she returned home, she felt wonderful. "I have the ability to help these people be strong and care for themselves," Miranda says.
Since the charity began, the villiage of iNzinga has had success. The gardens Miranda planted grew and flourished. "This summer, we are going to offer to pay student volunteers from around the village to work with us to plant gardens."
While this charity is still in the making, Miranda knows that she is blessed with the ability to make a difference. "As a 14 year old, I have found that I have the will, and the strength to make a change, and help people who really need it," she says."This generation is strong, and smart, and has the opportunity, the ability and the sources to change the world."
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