Miriam Lange with Evelin

Most of us think that being a TV presenter is a dream job with all the glamour, fashionable clothes, shoes and the red carpet. Roma Rajpal takes a peek into the life of Miriam Lange, a TV presenter for the morning news and talk show, Punkt 6 and Punkt 9 on RTL, Germany’s largest private channel.

Millions of people in Germany wake up to her beaming face on television everyday. While most of us are groggy-eyed and sipping our first coffee, Miriam is already on a roll. Her alarm buzzes at 2 am. She works against her body clock through the night, shuttling between studios and events. One would dismiss her as a regular celebrity, but the truth is that every time she looks out of the window at the snow flakes falling or walks past a bakery, smelling the wafting fragrance of baking bread, her heart goes back to Honduras.

She says that the secret behind her beaming smile is being able to do her part in changing the world and the life of her godchild, Evelin, an adorable girl from Honduras. She can’t tell us why or what exactly drew her to the big brown-eyed girl, “Guess it was her beaming smile that pulled me towards her,” says Miriam. 5-year-old Evelin is one of the many hundred children who live in a home run by the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (NPH) International. Her mother was an AIDS Victim. Evelin has been lucky to find a safe haven.

Miriam says that during her trip she saw things that would haunt her forever, “I was shocked. When we drove past the city, all we saw were garbage dumps, rubbish, old drug needles everywhere and children scrounging for food among dogs and cows. The street corners were full of teenagers smoking drugs and the security accompanying me told me that the criminality rate was very high.”

Honduras is home to 17 percent of Central America’s population. It is also where 60 percent of the region’s HIV infections are reported. In the year 2000 Honduras saw what was claimed as the worst epidemic seen in the history of Central America.

Miriam’s trip to Honduras has changed her perspective on life and she now derives happiness in giving her money, energy and love to the children in Honduras. She communicates frequently with Evelin and hopes that one day she can show Evelin the snow covered mountains of Germany.

Author: Roma Rajpal

Editor: Manasi Gopalakrishnan