Physical Health Zambia Project #6672

Health Care for 500 HIV+ Children in Zambia

by Power of Love Foundation

Health Care for 500 HIV+ Children in Zambia

Project Report | Oct 15, 2014
What's New in our Paediatric HIV and AIDS Care Program?

By Alka Subramanian | Executive Director/Founder

With your generous support, we continue to improve the lives of several hundred children and families impacted by HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zambia. Our paediatric HIV/AIDS care program benefits 200 HIV positive children directly, and an additional 1200 children indirectly as our trained caregivers share their learning with others in the community.

What’s New in 2014?

"Young Stars” (still in pilot stage): The vision behind this program is to help a child achieve his/her dream of continuing his/her education after high school. The program is designed to provide the child with the right tools so that he/she can graduate middle and high school and possibly enroll at the University.

Our Young Star program will complete six months in October 2014 and so far the results have been impressive. Jane (name changed), our first “Young Star” is growing well and thriving. As a result of the support provided to Jane and her family, she is happier, more confident about her future and enjoying Safe Park and school related activities. In addition, Jane has accepted her HIV+ status, is adhering well to her medication regimen, and helps her grandmother with chores around their home. She meets with her mentor every week when they discuss topics important to an adolescent girl such as reproductive health, and safe sex issues. As compared to six months back, Jane shows more interest and enthusiasm for school. She has understood the importance of an education, completes her homework on time, does not miss or want to miss classes, and participates in all school activities. According to her teacher, her performance at school has improved dramatically. Jane’s grandmother is very thankful and happy as she says that this program has brought a smile to her granddaughter’s face. We are proud of our “young star”.

Zero New Infections: In 2014, we continue to achieve our goal of zero new HIV infections. A set of twins was delivered by one of the HIV+ moms in our paediatric HIV program. The new born twins are HIV free even though they have HIV positive siblings. To date, out of the 27 babies born since we started PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child transmission) intervention only one child was born HIV positive.

What's Next?

We will be expanding our program from 200 children to 250 children in the next three months. In addition we will be tracking and following up with the 20 children who will be turning 18 and leaving our program. We wish these children the very best as they join the world of adults.

Our focus for 2014 and beyond continues to be the provision of quality health care to the children, training in caring for an HIV+ child to family members, micro loans and business training to women, and mosquito bed nets and education on prevention of malaria to the community. The ripple effects of this approach are huge and long lasting for the community.

Thanks for caring.

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Jul 16, 2014
An Update from the Field: Meet Two Children who can be Role Models

By Alka Subramanian | Executive Director/Founder

With your generous support, we have been able to continue to improve the lives of several hundred children and families impacted by HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zambia. At this time, every one of the 200 HIV+ children receives food, medicines and a package of life-saving health care services. The package of health care services includes weekly health check-ups from community health workers, regular visits from the Project Nurse, psycho-social counseling, education in HIV prevention, and adherence monitoring and training for older children. In addition, caregivers (most are single moms and many are grandmothers caring for several orphaned grandchildren) are provided training in caring for an HIV positive child.

We would like you to meet two children, Mary and Jack who have been in our pediatric HIV/AIDS care program for the last 7-8 years. Both these children understand the importance of staying in school, go in for clinic visits on their own, adhere to their medication regimen, and are growing up to be responsible adults. Mary and Jack have a positive outlook and we hope that they can be role/models for the younger children once they turn 18 years old and graduate from our program.

Mary (not her real name) was born in 1995, and lives with her grandmother, mother and five other people in the household. Before she was enrolled on our pediatric HIV/AIDS care program, she complained of headache, productive cough, and ear problems, and was not able to increase her weight. Since her health was poor, her grandmother took her in for VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) in 2005. Mary tested positive for HIV and started ARV’s in 2006. After a few months of medication, her health started improving and she started gaining weight. Her grandmother is grateful as she attributes her grand daughter's health to the food, medicines and continuous health care services provided by our pediatric HIV/AIDS care program.

Mary is aware of her HIV positive status and lives with a positive outlook on life. She goes for clinic visits and medical check-ups on her own and adheres to her medication regimen. She is studying in Grade 11 and her school performance is good. She is confident of finishing high school in 2015, and is working hard towards becoming a contributing member of her community.

Jack (not his real name) was born in 1995 and lives with his grandmother and eight other family members. He lost both his parents to HIV related illnesses in 2005 and 2006. Since he was one year old, his health was poor as he had fever, malaria, diarrhea, and anemia and was in and out of hospital. In 2005, Jack's grandmother got him tested for HIV and he tested positive. At this time his health was very poor with a CD4 count of just 250. He started ARV’s in 2006. The ARV medication led to an improvement in his health but had frequent opportunistic infections. He was enrolled in our pediatric HIV/AIDS care program in 2007 and since then his health is much better (measured in terms of higher weight and CD4 count).

Jack is aware of his HIV positive status and his life is close to normal. He picks up his medication from the Government clinic on his own. At this time, he is behind in school for his age but is doing well in school and at home.

Need for Funds: We are raising funds to continue to care for and support these children in 2014. Please donate generously so that we can continue to achieve our goal of 100% HIV free births, and all 200 children can continue to stay healthy and in school. As always, 100% of your donations go towards programs and no part is used for overheads.

Thanks for your caring and support.

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May 4, 2014
Happy Mother's Day from our Children in Zambia

By Alka Subramanian | ED/Founder

Happy Mother's Day! This Mother’s day give a gift of a healthy child to a mom in Zambia. With your generous support, we have been able to continue to improve the lives of several hundred children and families impacted by HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zambia. At this time we have 200 HIV positive children in our pediatric HIV/AIDS care program. Each of these children receives food, medicines and a package of life-saving health care services. The package of health care services includes weekly health check-ups from community health workers, regular visits from the Project Nurse, psycho-social counseling, education in HIV prevention, and adherence monitoring and training for older children. In addition, caregivers receive training in caring for an HIV positive child. This program impacts 200 children and their families directly and an additional 1200 children indirectly as the family members share their knowledge, and encourage others in the community to go in for VCT to prevent the spread of HIV.

News From the field: All our children are in stable health (as measured by stable/increase in weight/CD4 counts). The provision of a high protein soya supplement has significantly reduced malnourishment in children and has helped them get back to a normal weight. In addition, children on ARV medication are adhering well to their medication regimen. Finally in 2013, all five children born to moms in our Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) were HIV free. This is remarkable as the new born babies have HIV+ mothers and siblings. In fact of the 28 children born to date, only one child is HIV positive. Kudos to you - we could not have done this without your support.

At this time, we are raising funds to continue to care for these children and families in 2014. Please donate generously so that we can continue to achieve our goal of 100% HIV free births, and the children can continue to stay healthy and in school. As always, 100% of your donations go towards programs and no part is used for overheads.

Thanks.

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