The Colour Of My Tears

After several minutes of silence, I turned towards Madam Eno so she could have her say and leave me alone. Our nearness gave me a clear view of her permanently grinning face and I realised that her distorted mouth with the smiling look had a strange appearance to it. At close range, it wasn't a smile but a contortion of her lips. Fiddling with her elbow-length hand gloves, she watched me without speaking for several minutes as I examined her strange face. Then slowly, she removed her hand gloves and I saw her hands! They had always been concealed in hand gloves, and her feet permanently clad in socks, even on extremely hot days. I found out why that morning. Ada, only a teenager at the time, made a shocking discovery that was to change her world and that of so many others. A revealing internet report on the frightening statistics of a growing army of children orphaned by the HIV/AIDs Virus in Africa conceived this narrative fiction. The continent of Africa is slowly becoming overwhelmed with this growing number of psychologically scarred orphans, a reality further compounded by the quickly disappearing extended family system and kindred empathy, which Africa was renowned for. The report estimated that approximately 55% of these orphans are between the ages of twelve and seventeen years - the defining years in a child's life, filled with emotions and anger, resentment and depression, and within these sensitive years, the pain of grappling with the loss of one, or both parents through the HIV scourge has proven to be even more devastating on them physically and mentally. The Colour of my Tears is not only a tribute to these 'little warriors' but a bold statement that the war against the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome must go beyond the precincts of all continents if it must be won.

• | Author: Jacqueline U. Agweh
• | Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• | Publication Date: May 17, 2016
• | Number of Pages: 144 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1533276382
• | ISBN-13: 9781533276384