OH AIDS WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US?

OH AIDS! OH AIDS! Why are you doing this to us?
When my parents were there everything was fine , life was good,
Relatives and family friends were always around,
I was neat, going to school,
I had vision for life and a lot of freedom at my disposal.

OH AIDS! OH AIDS! why are you doing this to us?
Suddenly you wiped my parents away,
I was left in the custody of my grandmother who was very old
To sustain my basic needs,
Sometimes we slept without taking something in our stomach
And one night was like a year for us.

OH AIDS! OH AIDS! why are you doing this to us?
I was forced to move from door to door
Begging for something to fill my empty stomach and some to carry home
I was so dirty,stinging and with tattered clothes,
This deprived my freedom of associating with my age group
Something which made me inferior and lonely always.

OH AIDS! OH AIDS! why are you doing this to us?
Who is going to rescue us from the suffering of the girl child?

Recited on May 17, 2007 by MERCY AUMA, 10 YEARS OLD IN CLASS IIII,LIVING IN KIBERA SLUMS NAIROBI .COMPOSED BY ONE OF HER ELDER SISTERS, CAROLINE AUMA,  WHO IS IN CLASS 8.