Health Care for 500 HIV+ Children 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, 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. 

Links:

• One hundred percent Success in our PMTCT program
• From the Field: An Update
• About our pediatric HIV/AIDS care program