Count the Cost
A piece written by Rumbidzo Gunduza from Southern Africa Youth Forum, for the Faiths4Vaccines, USAID, and DoS Virtual Side Event to the Second COVID-19 Global Summit
1
2
3
Count the cost!
If you really want to see
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
1 in 3 people in the world
Did not have access to food in 2020.
Yet, we take it for granted
Because we are not
1 in 5 people in Africa
Who faced hunger.
We failed, to be the helping hand in twenty-twenty…
twenty-four million students
Might become permanent dropouts, from pre-primary to tertiary.
I don’t know if you know
That learning loss a.k.a. “learning poverty”
Is the new phemomenon?
Children around the world are behind in fundamental education.
It’s looking pretty glum for the generation
Who are at risk of losing trillions of lifetime earnings.
It’s concerning,
If this does not concern you!
So, let me teach you a thing or two
About “Ubuntu”
Ubuntu-Ndiri nekuti tiri
“I am because we are”
Ubuntu is a life philosophy
Ubuntu is the quality of compassion and humanity
I am because we are
community.
It is an individual’s moral responsibility
To act in the best interests of others in society
Where there is community, there lies security.
So, as long as some countries hoard vaccines
Whilst others can’t have access by fair means,
The threat of an unending pandemic
Will keep looming over heads,
From failure to act in collectiveness.
1
2
3
Count the cost!
If we do no vaccinate the world,
And save lives now
To build back better…together.
Let our hearts hold hands
As our humanity sings songs of solicitude
Louder than the clamorous chaos of callousness. Heartlessness
Is withholding good from those who would benefit from it
When it is in the power of your hand to do it.
See,
Ubuntu has never been a foreign concept –
Because it is a very core principle in any faith.
I know,
That we, as faith communities, have our own patterns and ways
But if we can pave our paths towards each other,
And sow those patterns together,
Our unity can form a beautiful blanket that warms the earth.
Like salt, edifying and provoking each other to do great works.
Like light, doing the good with integrity, intentionality, and inspiration.
Let the light of our faith shine!
Dispersing the darkness of indifference.
It’s time, that the people of faith rise to the occasion.
So that when the sun rises,
It finds the earth already illuminated with our hope.
The world needs us!
At a time where COVID-19, conflict, and climate change
Threaten global food security,
At a time where there is an increased risk of learning poverty.
Count the cost!
If our centers of worship don’t become the hand the world needs.
So, let’s be the centers of life-giving activities:
Like feeding programs,
Supporting vaccination facilities,
Learning centers,
For education recovery,
Love centers,
Where love isn’t just in words or speechs
But love in truth and action
Where people can feel
The loving touch of God’s hands with ours.
Faith leaders and faith lovers,
Will you be that hand?
That will hold another’s in partnership
As we help each other to lift the world up
From this sinking ship?
1
2
3
Will you be the hand
That won’t count the cost
But will be the solution to the loss?
Rumbidzo Gunduza is a multi-talented young female African artist with the heart and soul for social development. She is a spoken word artist with a potent message for hope, a creative that interrogates the meaning of life, and a writer who initiates a new way of thinking. Gunduza performs original poetry on various continental, regional and national platforms. She has performed at the Africa Child Day Celebrations organized by the African Union Commission- Youth Division in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and also at the Annual Southern Africa Youth Conference held in Mmadinare, Botswana. Besides being an artist, Gunduza is a development advocate with an unrelenting passion for Africa. She was also part of the Southern Africa Youth Forum (SAYoF) Country Board (2018-2021) and is currently a board member of Precious Stones Foundation which focuses on upgrading women and girls through life skills training and community advocacy.