Unconditional Love

"We can't all speak at once, but we can all sing at once..."

While listening to Folk Alley this afternoon, I came across a beautiful collaboration between Dan Zanes and the Children of Agape Choir. The a capella music was beautiful. It reminded me of the days spent in college listening to the cassette tape recording of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a tape I have fortunately found since in CD form. Not surprisingly, the Children of Agape Choir is also from South Africa and the music is equally as beautiful.

After digging around Youtube for some more songs, I came across a movie trailer above for a documentary from HBO Films about the choir entitled We Are Together: The Children of Agape Choir. Filmed over the course of three years, the film focuses on Slindile Moya's family, including an older brother who lives at home and has the HIV virus, as well as other residents of the orphanage who are members of the choir and have lost parents as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic..

Ten years ago, amid the rapid increase in HIV infection, Zodwa Mqadi, called "Grandma" by the children, founded the Agape Child Care Center to house and educate orphaned children. ("Agape" is Greek for "unconditional love.") Despite a lack of funding, Grandma provides a home to children, where they overcome difficult situations with help from their friends and their love of music and rhythm. She decides to bring the music of the children's remarkable a capella choir to the world, aiming to inspire contributions to expand Agape and help more children. (From the HBO Film's site)

Powerful stuff...