The Most Vulnerable of All

Today there are 140 – 210 million orphans in the world.  You can check out past posts for more statistics — here and here.

Today I want to focus on a special number of these.  According to Avert, at the end of 2010 there were 3.4 million children living with HIV/AIDS around the globe.  90% of these children live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa’s struggle with the AIDS virus has caused a lot of fear in people.  There has been a lot of work done to educate the African people about AIDS and HIV…how it is spread, how it is prevented, and other facts about the virus.

However, fear remains.  This fear results in children who are orphaned and have HIV being shunned, sent to special orphanages, and avoided.

Project Hopeful has done some outstanding work in advocating for these orphans.

{Photo courtesy of MorgueFile}

These children are unlikely to be placed in families in their home countries.  They are often not able to access the anti-retro viral medications that they need.  And they often will not get the care they need because of limited resources and the belief that healthier people should get the resources.

Their best hope for the future is adoption.  And often, because of our own fear and lack of education, we pass them by as well.

There has never been a transmission of the virus between family members in a normal household setting.

These children have the possibility of living long, happy, fulfilling lives through adoption.  With the right medications, the virus can become nearly undetectable.  It is a chronic, yet manageable disease.

I encourage you to check out:  Positively Adopted, Reece’s Rainbow, Rainbow Kids, andProject Hopeful.

And I hope to begin featuring a special kiddo in need of a loving home here weekly, specifically focusing on those with HIV/AIDS.

You have the power to make a difference in the life of a child.

World AIDS Day

It’s World AIDS Day.  I wanted to provide some links to organizations who are doing some phenomenal work in this area.  We can make a difference.  Testing HIV+ no longer means an AIDS death sentence.  Get informed.

Before & After: 90 Days of taking the ARV

Check out:  (RED) for all the great statistics and what is being done to prevent AIDS.  Project Hopeful is an organization that advocates for the adoption of children who are HIV+.  The Luke Commission works on the ground in Swaziland, the country with the most cases of HIV/AIDS in the world.

Get informed.  Get involved.  Change lives.  Change the future.

 

$30,000 in 3 Weeks!?!?!

Launching our new campaign tomorrow morning!  We need to raise $30,000 in the next three weeks.  I realize that this is an insane number.  To break it down…that’s $10,000 per week or about $1429 per day or $60 per hour, every hour.

Through Christ, impossible things for us become possible.  We are simply trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to serve Him and His children.  And we are believing in faith that He will provide the funds to protect His children.

The reality is, the orphanage we are working to purchase cannot sustain any longer.  There is no money for food, medical care, or school fees.  They have taken local loans for food and their credit has been maxed out.  The children were only eating once per day, now they are not even getting that.  As it is the rainy season, transportation has become all but impossible.  I was not aware of this until a couple of days ago, but because the director felt that we were the right people to purchase the orphanage, he ended all advertisements of the property.  I also feel that God has called us to this, but they are in desperate times.

The only other offer is one that will immediately close the orphanage and it will be re-purposed.  The children will then be moved to other orphanages or quite possibly, let to fend for themselves on the streets as most orphanages are already over crowded.  This orphanage maintains a wait list of over 100 children and has 50 beds that are full.

I view this possibility as heartbreaking.  For the orphan who has lost everything, this is again a total loss.  They will be forced to leave their community and their school.  For the orphan who still has extended family, they will be losing that tie with their family, their community, their school, everything.

One of the children that comes to mind is seven year old Oliver.  She is HIV positive and lives at the orphanage.  She was found along side the road with her elderly sick grandmother.  She has two sisters (one HIV positive) and a brother who still live with their grandmother, but will need care as the grandmother is dying.  Oliver was taken in because there was room for just one and her condition was most severe.  If the orphanage closes, she will either be left to care for her younger siblings or she will be forced to move away from everything she has known to another facility.  Please remember, she is SEVEN.  The age of most first or second grade children.  These are real children, who are innocent and vulnerable.

Please consider a donation for this cause, like us on Facebook, share us with your friends, pray for us, come to Uganda with us, volunteer with our local Spokane projects.  There is so much need…what is God calling you to?