12/1 - World AIDs Day

With all of the excitement about moving yesterday, we missed posting on a topic that is very near to our hearts - World Aids Day.

HIV can be stopped.

Children who have been orphaned because of HIV and orphans with the disease, MUST be cared for to help end this vicious cycle!

Susan Hillis, PhD. (CDC, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion) has been one of my favorite speakers at the annual Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit for several years now. She is an authority on the state of the orphan population, when it comes to HIV. She shares that the orphan population will be the next great wave of infected individuals, because of the increased risk and vulnerability that predisposes them to the disease. 

 HIV and Orphans Facts

 • Worldwide, there are 16-million orphans due to HIV.

 • In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 70% of all orphans are orphaned due to HIV.

 • About 14.8 million AIDS orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa. 

 • In 2009, 370,000 children became newly infected with HIV globally.

 • And an estimated 42,000–60,000 pregnant women died because of HIV. In contrast, in high-income countries the number of new HIV infections among children and maternal and child deaths due to HIV was virtually zero. 

Carolyn Twietmeyer and her family have revolutionized the information, process and resources available for adopting children with special needs, especially HIV, through Project Hopeful. 

What can you do? 

                  Here are some ideas...

Simple Things Churches Around the World Can Do for Children

• Keep their mother alive, through early HIV diagnosis, treatment, and support;

• Provide treatment to mother and child even before the child is born if the 

mother is HIV positive;

• Follow the latest treatment guidelines which include things like C-section delivery;

• If the child is orphaned due to HIV, find a RELATIVE or NEW FAMILY who will legally adopt the child for life. GIVE AN ORPHAN WHAT THEY NEED MOST: A FAMILY. Every believer can GIVE to children who are orphaned due to AIDS by SPONSORING A FAMILY WHO IS WILLING TO ADOPT;

• Give to campaigns which help families adopt at www.hivaidsinitiative.com; 

• Consider adopting a child who is living with HIV. 

                                   -from Saddleback Church's HIV/AIDs initiative

Orphan Prevention

As our programs have succeeded in stabilizing over 240 children in the past 2 years post-quake, we've finally been able to turn our eyes toward the future here. World Orphans bases their orphan care on a holistic model, looking at every aspect of the situation at hand. It is a priority to seek to address the three C's - Church, Child, and Community in all of our projects and partnerships.

Here in Haiti with the home-based programs providing very effective care, Ted & Ron have begun to assist church partners in looking at some ideas for sustainability. One of the Haitian churches worked with their American partner to build a chicken house this summer. It will enable them to raise & sell chickens at market value, making a profit that will further the OVC (orphaned & vulnerable children) program that they are serving the community with. The first set of chicks will arrive shortly & be ready for market by the holidays!

Sustainability projects address one facet of orphan prevention. Poverty is a big one here, so we are continually working to research and develop appropriate ways to help the churches & caregiver families to find jobs and gain the skills needed to further stabilize and meet their spiritual, emotional & physical needs.

Last month, Jessica & I began the journey toward further orphan prevention from a medical standpoint. The first phase of our research & development is seeking practical ways to meet the great need for maternity & HIV care in these communities. Maternal & infant death rates are extremely high here and HIV is a silent killer that leaves orphaned and sometimes HIV+ children without families.

Putting our nursing insight to work, we held forums in 9 of our church communities. We sat down face-to-face with the women at each location to open up conversations, gather information, and answer questions regarding these two major topics. Our goal was to gain a better understanding of the needs and experiences of the women in regards to pregnancy, childbirth and HIV. 

We were blessed by their openness to share personal stories with us and to speak about the struggles and the needs of women in their communities. The response that echoed on as we moved from church to church was "Maternity care is absolutely our GREATEST need for women right now."  We listened intently and prayed with them over the situation, asking God to provide these resources, and as sisters in Christ, committed ourselves to seeking His guidance and being His servants.

Though I don't know exactly where our work in this area will lead quite yet, we were able to offer a very basic first step to each of these communities. At the end of this month, a midwife from Arizona is traveling down to provide Safe Birth training to 5 women in each church. While it will be more theory than hands on & entail no practical experience, it is a very important first step in providing related resources. Our hope it that it will allow and encourage the women with a vision for developing their own church-based maternity care programs.  Please pray with us over the next two weeks leading up to it - that God will raise up godly women who are willing meet these needs in their community as His servants and that they will become tangible examples of Christ's love.