Dear friends,

I hope July was a good month to you and you used your gifts, talents or position to make a difference in someone’s life. Remember being alive today is the greatest gift you have from your creator, it is up to you to make the best out of your life. No matter what situation you are going through…good, or challenged, choose to be productive and show kindness to others. You never know what others are dealing with. You being positive will help the situation and bless someone else. Complaining, nagging, competing, bad attitude are unfruitful and will just drain your energy. In a world where most of us feel the pressure of life's hectic pace on a daily basis, it can be easy to operate as though your goals, challenges and concerns are all that matters. Don’t be self-absorbed. Dare to be different and make a difference!

One of my life’s motto has always been “Everyone can make a difference”. That is a logo of Tausi Aids Fund as well, an NGO that is making a difference in other people’s lives. Just this month, a group of positive ladies and I took the lead and helped 120 orphaned Tanzanian secondary school students, in their education process for this year. It isn’t because we are not challenged on a daily basis. It is because we realize we are blessed and we can reach and bless someone else.

Artists from different parts of the world took a stand early July this month to make a difference in addressing poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa by performing in Live 8 concerts. Some people didn’t agree with the way the concerts operated but I believe they did their part to expose a problem.

I would like to share with you an article that I wrote on respond to an article published from International Herald Tribune, the article was written with a Cameroon writer for New York Times, saying that the problem in Africa are the leaders:

Dear Editor,

I am writing responding to the article written by Jean-Claude Shanda Tonme of The New York Times. Please forward my comments to Mr.Jean-Claude Shanda Tonme:

Dear Jean-Claude Shanda Tonme,

As an African and writer myself, born and raised in Tanzania, I would like to comment on your article. I personally agree that you have some good points that will encourage Africans to do more for themselves, something I have been encouraging my people to do, and that the leaders need to be more responsible. Corrupted leaders have ruined our continent and are continuing do to so if we won't fight for more democracy. Yes, I agree that Africa has been blessed with rich resources that if it was well managed; it would profit the people of Africa and not only the leaders. But I also agree that we are facing challenges in our continent that need to be exposed to the world, so that we can get more resources for us to better help ourselves. Just to name HIV/AIDS and poverty, I agree that we need the world attention for us to tackle these challenges better. I say this for my own experience of years trying to fight Poverty and HIV/AIDS in my country and in other parts of the continent. There are Africans doing a lot to handle their own problems but we can only do so much as the problem is now far too big for Africans themselves to handle.

Your message targets the leaders and I think you forgot the real PEOPLE...the children of Africa! The normal people who are working hard every day and receive less than 50$ a month and feed a family of 10 people, you forgot that grandmother who had 12 orphaned grandchildren to take care of with nobody to turn to, no school system, government system or medical system to support her. A teenager who steals something to be put in a jail to have a place to call home! These all are fruits of poverty and these are common people that greeted me as I was trying to use my God given vision to reach them.

Some of the Leaders need to be put in jail for the suffering they are causing to the people who put them in the position of power. There are some who are doing well considering the little resources they have. I pray for the continent to have leaders who have integrity and who will help them to move forward and I also know that we have to fight both Poverty and corrupted leaders. Yet we can't stop helping a common man for the mistakes of the one in power, yes something must be done to all of them. As your article reached my computer, 8,000 of my brothers and sisters will be dying today and thousands of them will be going to bed hungry. Is good that you are exposing wrong leadership and corrupted African governments but I don't agree with you calling the concerts of Live 8 as insult to Africans.

The bottom line is poverty and HIV/AIDS need to be exposed. I think Bono of U2 and others gathered for your people...no matter which other reasons they might have as you called it.... yet they exposed the truth.... That children's of Africa need food, education, medicine, roofs on their heads.... etc. Remember nobody can do it all, they did their part and maybe your part is to expose the wrong leadership that is making the problems we are facing worse. The rest of the world can come together but if we Africans ourselves stand aside and look, or let the wrong leaders continue to lead us further into to misery, then nobody will move us! Let the Africans themselves not only do the talk but also do the actions. Lets move, lets do something to save the generation that will be disappearing if you and I don’t act by the time you read this comment. You mentioned in your article that Africans know already where the problem is, why then not change the situation? We complained after the Tsunami that the world shows attention when catastrophes happens somewhere else but seem to be quiet with the challenges we face in Africa. Now that some people are acting, let us see that as a way of all of us to do better and improve our continent for the better.

God bless Africa

If you’d like to read Jean-Claude Shanda Tonme article go to: http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?query=Jean-Claude+Shanda+Tonme&sort=swishrank&submit=Search