Review: Empty Hands – Sister Abegail Ntleko

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Empty Hands is the inspiring memoir of Zulu nurse and healthcare activist Sister Abegail Ntleko. Growing up poor in a rural village with a father who didn't believe in educating girls, against seemingly insurmountable odds Sister Abegail earned her nursing degree and began work as a community nurse ...

Empty Hands is the inspiring memoir of Zulu nurse and healthcare activist Sister Abegail Ntleko. Growing up poor in a rural village with a father who didn't believe in educating girls, against seemingly insurmountable odds Sister Abegail earned her nursing degree and began work as a community nurse and educator, dedicating her life to those in need. "Her story tells us," says Desmond Tutu, who wrote the foreword to the book, "what a single person can accomplish when heart and mind work together in the service of others."

Overcoming poverty and racism within the apartheid South African system, she adopted her first child at a time when it was unheard of to do so. And then she did it again and again. In forty years she has taken in and cared for hundreds of children who had nothing, saving babies—many of them orphans whose parents died of AIDS—from hospitals that were ready to give up on them and let them die.

Empty Hands describes the harshness of Ntleko's circumstances with wit and wisdom in direct, beautifully understated prose and will appeal not only to activists and aid workers, but to anyone who believes in the power of the human spirit to rise above suffering and find peace, joy, and purpose.

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I must be honest.  I am having difficulty putting into words my response to this book.  A portion of the book introduction reads, “One woman’s journey to save children orphaned by AIDS in Africa.”  Therefore, I expected to have some emotional moments as I read this book.

What I did NOT expect, was to read a Literary work so skillfully written that I gained such revelation about not only the gift of writing but more importantly, the gift of unselfish humanity.  Facing incomparable challenges and obstacles, Sister Abegail had every right, in my opinion, to quit.  With her words, she shows the reader why quitting was more foreign to her spirit than the challenges themselves.

With tears in my eyes and an uplifted spirit, I highly and without any reservations, recommend this book.

Reviewed by: Jamesina

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