Banana Man
The inspirational story of how one man’s mission to save a child led him to become an accidental father to a thousand more

by Kevin Allen

Now published - order here

ISBN 978-1-905823-17-8

Price £9.99.

When you encounter an everyday human tragedy taking place halfway around the globe do you let it pass by or do you do something about it? Kevin Allen chose to do something.

"I rarely found time to watch TV, but a BBC documentary came on, highlighting the terrible plight of AIDS orphans in Zululand, South Africa.

Normally I would turn over as I find this type of programme depressing, but I couldn’t be bothered getting up to switch channels. So in an act of lazy apathy, I watched.

I had no idea then, that my life was about to turn on its head."

The documentary contained harrowing scenes of a dying mother desperately trying to support thirteen children, many of whom she had taken in after they had been orphaned. She had just found out that one of her young daughters might have AIDS herself and was showing early signs of sickness. Her husband had already died of AIDS and she was scared that when she died, she would leave many young children behind to a terrible fate.

Next, a young boy’s life was shattered as he watched his father die of AIDS in front of his eyes. He had to walk miles back in the dark to a filthy mud hut with no running water, gas or electricity. Distraught, afraid and starving, he soon broke down in tears – so did I. His mother had already died of AIDS a year earlier and his brave young sister tried to comfort him in vain.

"Tears were pouring down my cheeks by now and I felt nauseated, knowing that the young Zulu boy, named only as Sne, might soon be dead.

I’m not religious and never go to church, yet found myself angrily arguing with God, asking why he allowed these horrors to happen.

A voice in my head said back…..”Why do you?” I knew from that instant I would not."

Six days later he was standing in Zululand, searching for Sne and the other families he’d seen on TV just days earlier.

Every journey starts with a first step