Why Go?

From the AIDS Orphans Brochure:

The AIDS Orphans project is organized in the hospital service area, within walking distance of the hospital or where the hospital's community health department outreach vehicles travel for the team to assess the needs of the children and family. Currently, about 430 AIDS Orphans have been visited and registered; 430 are being fed, 170 are being educated through Primary School and sponsors are being solicited to send scholarships to send the AIDS Orphans to Secondary School.

Children are classified as AIDS Orphans if either of their parents has died of AIDS. If one of the parents has died of AIDS, the other will probably die in the very near future as anti-retroviral medications for helping to sustain the body through the ravages of AIDS are not affordable to the poor in the area who make up the vast majority of AIDS cases. Due to the social stigma of AIDS, it is difficult to determine that AIDS was the cause of death. Malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis, anemia and other diseases are often listed as the cause of death because AIDS has so debilitated the person that they have little resistance to combat the diseases which they contract. The drugs which usually will help to save these patients from these diseases are ineffective. They die having used all the family's resources.

The Partners in Mission teams and churches of the United Methodist Church have a new program to build single family homes for a grandmother and up to 5 children. Each home, plus latrine, is estimated to cost $1500 and is being built on land owned by the grandmother. Keeping the AIDS Orphans in a familiar setting allows the children to experience village life and gives hope to the widowed grandmothers in charge of their care. The basic plan is to build the homes with locally appropriate construction material and use a floor plan consistent with the culture of the area.

To save the entire AIDS Orphans Brochure to your local drive - Right Click here and Select "Save Target As..."

WARNING: This is a Microsoft Word document with embedded photos - LARGE (4018kb) FILE!