There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey To Rescue Africa's Children
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend My book about Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra, the story of a remarkable woman who opened her doors to Addis Ababa's orphaned children, is finished, but the vast landscape of the orphaned children flows on. On a recent return visit to Addis Ababa, I found I could not lay aside the impetus to see and to understand, the impetus to try to act, to try to bear witness. Product details and pricing info |
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40 Customer Reviews Posted
- Wow! Don't miss this one!
- As the mother of two Ethiopian daughters I found this book to be incredibly interesting and touching. The statistics about the problem of AIDS in Africa are jawdropping. But the heart of the book is the story of this woman and the children she helps.
Though non-fiction, the book reads like a novel. I read it cover to cover in two very long evenings. A week after I finished it, I was already thinking about reading it again. Except I also wanted to share it with everyone I know-- what a dilemma! I may be buying another copy or two.
Read this book for yourself. You will be entertained. Your heart will be touched. And your view of the world will be broadened. - 2006-09-10, 18 of 18 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- An Amazing Story...
- Melissa Fay Greene tells the inspiring story of Haregewoin Teferra, an ordinary, imperfect, middle class Ethiopian woman, who takes in children during a time when even their own families are turning them away. Melissa Fay Greene puts faces and names to a pandemic so large that many of us feel that there is nothing we can do to help. Ms.Greene writes with such warmth and compassion that one can't help but feel connected to the people she writes about...the children and the families that are forced to give up their precious kids. Along the way we learn about Ethiopian history, the AIDs pandemic, and most importantly the impact a caring person can have on the lives around them. I could not put this book down.
- 2006-09-06, 13 of 13 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A Life-Changing Book
- I don't know about you, but I am not one of those people who looks at the vast problems of Africa, Orphans and the global spread of AIDS and says, "Yeah. I can wrap my mind around that."
Yet after coming across THERE IS NO ME WITHOUT YOU, an incredible book about this very subject, I feel differently. It was the subtitle, "One woman's odyssey to rescue Africa's Children" that made me brave enough to crack open such a tome. Anyone can relate to one person's story, one person's desire to rise above the self. The author is clearly a person who thinks about community, her journalist instincts mingling with a mother's compassion when she read of the "ridiculous number" of African orphans---twelve million and counting. "Who is going to raise twelve million children?" she wondered, and went to find out. She found this widow in Ethiopia, Haregewoin Teferra, who dealt with grief by taking in children no one else wanted-one, and then a few, and then a staggering amount--and still counting. The author, Melissa Fay Greene, has even adopted some Ethiopian children herself, in addition to her own four kids.
Yet if this was just a sweet book about loving mothers across the continents I don't think it would still be haunting me and spurring me to some action. Greene weaves throughout this
amazing tale the larger story of how this all happened---the global spread of AIDS, the attempts to stop it, the horrid inequities. Right now in western countries a relatively healthy person living with AIDS is popping some pills that would save the life of an African who doesn't know such medicine exists, couldn't obtain it if she knew it was out there, and will die due to this cold, hard fact. Whose fault is this? Greene makes it clear---drug companies, complicit governments (no U.S. administration, republican or democrat, gets off the hook here), and a myriad of logistical complexities.
But here's the thing: this book is not depressing. The writing is lively, even witty, with tons of great stories. This book is about love, and investment in children, an original tale of good, imperfect people doing what they can. You meet these vulnerable, tough little kids,so much like kids anywhere, you understand a beautiful faraway culture, and you think about what you can do. I reiterate:this book isn't depressing---not because the calvary comes and saves the day in the form of this smart author or her noble heroine---but because you get the sense that we're the calvary. I've already done one small thing about this, yet for a country with so much need, it feels huge. So many fights these days seem not worth fighting. You read THERE IS NO ME WITHOUT YOU and you're just so happy to find a reason to get on the horse. - 2006-09-05, 16 of 16 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A World-Changing Book I hope!
- I completely agree with the first reviewer's comments. Ms. Greene manages to tackle a topic that reduces many of us to despair and hopelessness with grace, clarity, and even wit. More than any other book I've read on the AIDS crisis, this one is a real page-turner too. The compelling tale of Haregewoin Tesferra, a reluctant and flawed heroine, should engage anyone who cares about the fate of the most vulnerable children on the planet--those orphaned when their parents succumb to HIV/AIDS because no treatment is available to the vast majority of African victims. Ms. Greene doesn't let anyone off the hook for this monumental global injustice but she does suggest ways that every single one of us can be part of the solution. With her engaging descriptions of individual children among the 12 million or so estimated AIDS orphans, the author makes them as real as the children who sit at my breakfast table complaining about the brand of breakfast cereal available. This terrific book deserves a huge audience--and I'm going to start with my own teenage children!
- 2006-09-05, 17 of 17 people found this review helpful, Rated:
