I was moved beyond words watching the DVD "Angels in the Dust" last night, a documentary about South African children orphaned by AIDS, some of whom are HIV positive themselves, and how the Cloete family is loving, helping, and healing them through Boikarabelo, a rural school, orphanage, medical clinic, organic farm, and growing village.

Date:   2/29/2008 2:51:18 PM ( 16 y ago)

"They are our children; they are mine, they are yours; they belong to all of us; we are all going to have to come together as men and women, and say we are the parents." --Marion Cloete

More pictures from Boikarabelo: http://www.dolfilms.org/angels/childrenscharter.htm

About Boikarabelo:

"Boikarabelo" means “social responsibility and accountability” and “jointly, communally” in the Tswana language.

"Boikarabelo (formerly Botshabelo Community Development Trust, Magaliesburg) began in December 1990, founded by Con and Marion Cloete. The Cloete family left behind their urban upper-middle-class lifestyle in Johannesburg, South Africa, to buy an old farm and start Boikarabelo, giving rural orphans, and eventually poor and displaced adults, a home, an education and a chance at a better life.

At Boikarabelo, our philosophy is to help anyone who needs it, regardless of background or age. If someone comes to us for help, we can’t turn them away, whether they are an adult, a child or even an animal. As a result, we are now home to about 1,000 men, women and children, plus a few dogs, cats and snakes.

Our goal is to alleviate poverty and be the model village of Africa. Everyone at Boikarabelo – the founders, the villagers, students and volunteers – lives and works together as a family towards that goal."

About the Film:

"Angels in the Dust is a story of hope and healing in the face of a staggering crisis. AIDS is leaving entire South African villages decimated and thousands of children orphaned, with no adults to raise them... (It) is the true story of Marion Cloete and the orphans she cares for. The stories of the children are interwoven with the dramatic parallel saga of the orphaned elephants of Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa. The longtime government practice of culling— brutally killing adult elephants to control herd sizes— has torn apart the complex social fabric of elephant culture, a fabric that is not unlike that of the traditionally close-knit African village before Apartheid... In the last few years, elder female elephants have been re-introduced into the Pilanesberg population in the hopes of resocializing the young. The experiment is working— and it offers a resonant reflection of the healing taking place for the human children being 'reparented' by Marion at Botshabelo.

Angels in the Dust is the story of the life-changing power of one compassionate heart: a courageous, self-sacrificing, fiercely loving woman who has chosen a spiritual path over a material one. For a nation overwhelmed by an epidemic of HIV/AIDS, orphans, rape, violence, and Apartheid’s legacy of social and political unrest, the film offers a clear pathway of hope and a replicable paradigm for the future of cultures devastated by disease."



What We Can Do:

Read More about Boikarabelo:
http://www.boikarabelo.org/whoweare.html  http://www.boikarabelo.org/history.html

Donate Directly to Boikarabelo:
http://www.boikarabelo.org/



Participate in the Ubuntu Bracelet Campaign ("Ubuntu" comes from the Xhosa word meaning "humanity towards others": http://www.dolfilms.org/DoActNow/ubuntu.html



Watch the trailer for the documentary Angels in the Dust:  http://www.dolfilms.org/angels/promo.html or 
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=dreamoutloudfilms                          



Find out more about the film Angels in the Dust:
http://www.dolfilms.org/angels/story.html

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