Students Living with HIV in Africa Answer the Question: "What is Beauty?"
"What is beauty?"
How would you answer that question? What is the importance of beauty to you? Have you ever thought about it?
"Beauty is power."
Two young adults--Dorah Dunigan and Fred Hope Serugo--interns at ALI (AidChild Leadership Institute) in Africa--make that conclusion.
The AidChild Leadership Institute (aliuganda.com) in Entebbe, Uganda is working towards an HIV-free generation through the creation of a new model of leadership development in the region. At ALI, young interns living with HIV are provided holistic care and a variety of opportunities for spiritual formation as they emerge into adulthood.
One of the institute's six core principles is to "Make it beautiful."
Psalm 50:2 says that "God shines from the perfection of beauty."
"By prioritizing beauty in our everyday practices and rituals," says ALI CEO Dr. Nathaniel Dunigan, "we believe that leadership takes on a more sacred quality, fostering real and sustainable social change."
For myself, I have never used the stripped-down bare sentence of three words--Beauty is power--but that doesn't mean I don't believe it is true. I have known the transforming power of discovering beauty and applying it in the hard places of my life. I have experienced the calling of God through beauty.
What else do two young adults living with HIV have to say about beauty? Please continue reading. I have decided to print their essays in their entirety. (Next week, I will have three more ALI students share their essays.)
First, Doran Dunigan, ALI Senior Intern, ALI Clinical Aide:
Beauty is when something is being used for the purpose for which it was created.
Beauty is so important to my life. It gives me the power to stand out, to feel good about others and myself. When I am surrounded by beauty, say, entering a room that is lit with flowers and beautiful sceneries, or say, lake views, this brings me much joy and happiness. When everything is placed in the right order, it's evident that you will feel welcome, and this enchants my soul with inner joy and happiness.
Beauty is a medicine. It heals the soul. As a medical practitioner, it's important to my clients in a way that they will feel better, however sick they are. An environment that is beautiful, with added color, flowers, or even a nice breeze, will catch the clients’ attention. This will therefore bring to them a peace of mind, thus beauty being so important.
And, there are so many reasons why it makes a difference. It leads to change in the way people act. Take for example, if a place is so dirty, all cluttered and rubbish littered everywhere, some people tend to not notice that. One can become so used to that. However, if this same place is made more beautiful, with organized disposal of rubbish, cleaned, and made more beautiful, it is inevitable that one will honor the beauty of the place. And will work towards making it beautiful.
In conclusion, beauty is joy. Beauty is happiness. And beauty is power.
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Thoughts from Fred Hope Serugo, ALI Senior Intern, ALI Office Manager:
I don’t know who first said that ''Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder," but that statement is true. Beauty is very subjective. I think the importance of beauty and beautiful things is that they give us pleasure. Beauty is the perfect uniqueness of an idea or of an object. The element that brings out perfection, integration of something. It is an idea above all ideas.
Beauty is very important in our lives, and we need it so much because it brings about joy and pleasure into someone who owns it. It also brings power to those who attain it. It also attracts people in a way that, when you do beautiful things, you attract more people. Beauty also makes people respect you in a way that is professional and gentle.
Beauty makes a difference, personally, in that I get more respect from the people around me. This is because, earlier on, I used to not care much about making myself and the environment around me beautiful. But, now, since I care more about how I dress, and how I treat my environment, I am so pleased at the difference in my relationships. It has also helped me to live a happy and positive life because I am now always healthy and strong.In conclusion, I now know that we can make our lives beautiful. We can change our attitudes, and embrace beauty, because beauty is power.
How would you answer the question, "What is beauty?" Has God used beauty in your life to draw you to Him?
Check out ALI (AidChild Leadership Institue) here, including a video done by Dorah Dunigan.
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