AIDS PROGRAM SAVES LIVES OF AFRICAN CHILDREN

More than 250 East African children are receiving life-sustaining AIDS therapy as the result of a program from Compassion International.

“There is no doubt these children would have died without these treatments,” said Dr. Scott Todd, Director of Compassion’s AIDS Initiative, in a news release from the organization. “This program lifts the death sentence that once accompanied the diagnosis of AIDS,” he added.

As World AIDS Day is observed on Dec. 1, over 1,000 Compassion-assisted children in East Africa have been confirmed as being HIV positive. In addition, approximately 4,300 care givers and siblings of Compassion-assisted children have HIV. Todd estimated that these numbers represent about 25% of the actual cases of HIV infection yet to be confirmed among the children and families that Compassion serves.

According to the news release, Compassion’s AIDS Initiative responded to this need by providing prevention, treatment and rehabilitative care. One part of the response has been anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy — treating viral infections like HIV with drugs. The medicine prevents HIV from replicating in the body, allowing the immune system to recover its role as defender against other infections. As a result, decades of longevity and health may be offered to the person taking ARV.

“More than 90 percent of the people who need the medicine don’t have access to it,” Todd said in the news release. “They’re the people living in small communities and villages in Africa.”

He added, “There are many challenges to providing care for those with AIDS in Africa, but the most difficult challenges are not just about clinics and capacity, they are about relationships. Success in the global fight against AIDS is not accomplished strictly by getting pills to clinics. It requires supporting people in their decision to go for care and stay with therapy through life’s sometimes overwhelming hardships.”

Todd said, “When you are a nine year-old girl living in an African slum and you have witnessed the death of your mother to AIDS, the reasons to hope are few.”

Commenting in the news release, Todd said, “Compassion is unique, because we build credible and lasting relationships with people in the communities. That allows us to enter their world, to listen, to counsel, to encourage and to offer everything required for successful return to health. This includes everything from nutritional support, antibiotics, anti-retroviral drugs and even such things as transportation. All these costs are covered by Compassion.”

Compassion believes that thousands of siblings and caregivers associated with the Compassion-assisted children are also HIV positive. As funds are available, they also receive assistance from Compassion.

When ARV is administered to caregivers, it enables children to remain with them, receiving all the benefits that a family has to offer,” Todd said in the news release. “Not only does ARV extend lives, it enhances the quality of lives. As a result, it allows children to have the best possible life.”

Compassion International, founded in 1952, is one of the nation’s largest Christian child development organizations, working with more than 65 denominations and thousands of indigenous church partners in Africa, Asia, Central and South America and the Caribbean.

For additional information about Compassion go to www.compassion.com.