Article May 17, 2004 Issue

'God delivered them to my hands'

South African humanitarian Heather Reynolds talks with the Sentinel about a life-altering commitment she made to God, and the many lives that decision has blessed.

By Marta Greenwood Photographs by Mark Williamson

Little did Heather Reynolds realize on that day in 1993, on a hot Ugandan highway, that the whole direction and purpose of her life were about to change. Heather was visiting Uganda from South Africa, and she and a local companion had been driving from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, for more than six hours. Now in a desolate region, they had run out of water. They got out to drink from a nearby freshwater spring. As Heather tells it: "There were children from the village all around. But I noticed that there was something about these children that really worried me—they weren't laughing. They were absolutely quiet.

"Normally if children see a strange woman, they will at least talk among themselves. But there was this eerie silence. Just stares, with not much expression. Eventually I couldn't stand it, so I asked my Ugandan friend, 'What's wrong with these kids?"