I have just returned from a very moving journey to Rwanda and The Democratic Republic of the Congo where I witnessed Population Services International's (PSI) life-saving HIV prevention program, YouthAIDS and PSI's child survival program,  Five and Alive.

In 2005, the total number of people in Rwanda living with HIV/AIDS reached 190,000 or 3.1% prevalence rate.  

In The Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country with the highest number of child deaths in the world, malaria is the number one killer of children.  Malaria accounts for approximately 40% of child deaths in the DRC.

Below is a short excerpt from my personal journal complete with photos and stories detailing the people I met and the programs I visited. To read the full entry, please click here.

As a subscriber, you will receive additional excerpts and subscriber-only photos and stories. Please look out for a new entry in the coming days.

Thank you for your interest in our work.

Sincerely,

Ashley Judd

Day One:  Travel Day(s)

The African sun is setting with its patented hues of orange and red. The sun looks like this from nowhere else on earth. I can see the thousand hills of Rwanda undulate before me, terraced and graced with lakes.  I am grateful to be emotionally sober. My last time to this continent, the original home of us all, I was so overwhelmed with emotion as to be nearly distraught.

Everything, but everything, made me cry! 

My first African tree! My first African bird!  My first African friend!  I was returning to my cradle and had the heightened emotionality of a seeker’s first pilgrimage.  I am far from casual about this journey, far from it, I am simply….simpler.  My gratitude, awe, respect, and even my enthusiasm are more subtle.

To read more,  click here.