Robbie Williams’ Day With African AIDS Orphans

The Mirror reports Robbie Williams was introduced to youngsters in South Africa who have lost everything to AIDS, which has orphaned 15 million children around the world. “When we drove up the dusty track through all of these mud houses I was worried about what was going to greet me,” Robbie said. “My socializing skills aren’t the greatest with people that I don’t know, especially when English isn’t their native tongue, and I knew that there was a lot expected of me. I was scared that I would have no empathy. And then there just came massive smiles from the children. I think the thing that always hits me on these journeys – Sri Lanka, Mozambique – is the smiles. And the ‘just getting on with it’. Because that’s what they do – they just get on with it. I went straight into the living room, and I sat with the younger brother, who showed me the pictures of his mother and father. Knowing that they’d passed away from AIDS and they were actually buried in the garden outside, I couldn’t really take it in, to tell you the truth.”