A practical step

Jordan Riber — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:57:13 GMT

Did you know that about half of all orphans in Africa are looked after by their grandmothers. We are working on a project that will help raise awareness and money for these heroines...

Come support our group... we need it !

http://beta.razoo.com/groups/unconditionallove

Jordan

taking steps early on

Lucy Hoffen — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:00:10 GMT

A UNAIDS 2002 study estimates that by 2010 there will be 107 million orphans worldwide, 25 million of these due to AIDS. The traditional practice of putting orphans into institutions receives, justifiably, extensive criticism. The word orphanage brings to mind images of the thousands of starving, unloved children discovered locked up in state institutions in Romania - just one example of why orphans should not be institutionalised.

Africa faces unique challenges due to being more heavily affected by HIV/AIDS than any other region in the world - in 2001 there were around around 35 million orphans in Africa, over 30% of them due to AIDS. The majority of these children will have become infected from an HIV-positive mother during pregnancy or through breastfeeding.

There is growing evidence that providing infected mothers with antiretroviral drugs reduces the mother to child transmission of the drug significantly. The following link is an interesting initiative in Haiti, which focuses on preventing children from becoming orphans in the first place by providing HIV-positive mothers with ARV drugs so they can survive to raise their own children:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/champions/paul_farmer.html

Although it is too late for many orphans, taking preventative measures early on, such as this, is just one step of many needed in the long fight against AIDS and its devastating consequences.

AIDS Orphans

A practical step

taking steps early on