Madonna joins the bandwagon

First it was Bill & Melinda Gates then Bono of U2 fame followed by Angelina Jolie to serve the people of Africa. Now its the turn of another celebrity to take notice of an African place called Malawi. Malawi is a country in southeast Africa. The country has abundance of AIDS, malaria, drought and Tobacco (its major crop).
Madonna has commited to raise about $3 million to fund programs especially orphan children. Out of the 12 million population of Malawi one million are orphans.

Ground has just been broken on an orphan care center, which aims to feed and educate as many as 1,000 children a day. She has also formed a partnership with developing-world economic guru Jeffrey Sachs on programs to improve the health, agriculture and economy of a village nearby. She's financing—to the tune of about $1 million—a documentary about the plight of children there. And she has met with Bill Clinton to see if they can work together to bring low-cost medicines to the area, as well as partnering with several aid organizations.
"For the last few years—now that I have children and now that I have what I consider to be a better perspective on life—I have felt responsible for the children of the world," says Madonna

I happened to see a program called Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN a few days back. In that program Cooper reports about the poor state of infants and children due to starvation. It was very disheartening to watch the way people live. In the report Cooper mainly shows three kids Aminu, Rashidu(2yrs) and Habu(10 months). The program affected me so much that I could not forget the following lines which were said during the program

The next morning when we return, the arrivals' tent is once again filled, children getting weighed and measured. Some immediately receive milk.
Inside intensive care, Aminu (ph) is still asleep. Rashidu (ph) is awake, and Habu (ph) is alive. His breathing shallow and quick, but the nurses say he's stable.
This is the last time we'll see him. When we return later in the day, Habu's (ph) bed is empty.
(on camera): It's shocking how quickly things can change here, how in the blink of an eye a child can simply vanish. And when we came in this morning, the three kids we met yesterday were doing OK. At least they made it through the night, they were still alive.
Well, now it's the evening, several hours later, and things have changed. Aminu (ph) is OK, and his mom is pretty confident. But Rashidu (ph) is in septic shock. And Habu (ph) -- well, Habu (ph) died several hours ago. He was just 10 months old.
(voice-over): On the bed, Habu's (ph) cup and bowl are all that remain. His mother lives more than 100 miles away and is already returning home. She left Habu (ph) behind, buried in an unmarked grave somewhere on the outskirts of town.
(on camera): Do you get used to seeing this?

I was able to find the whole transcripts of the Anderson Cooper's program, if interested click here to read more. I have not put any pictures related to Cooper's report because it is very depressing to see it.
I salute Bill & Melinda, Bono, Angelina Jolie and many more people who are fighting the odds to make this World a better place to live.

(Sources: Time, CNN)

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