Real Stories About PEPFAR

By 2010, over 20 million children will have lost a parent to AIDS. The vast majority of these children live in developing countries, with eighty percent in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Less than one in ten of these children receive any form of external support. Without a safety net, these children are more likely to drop out of school, to be malnourished, to lose their homes, to face discrimination and abuse, and to contract HIV themselves.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR in short, offers hope to children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. By providing key funding, PEPFAR enables its implementation partners to reach needy children and their families with life-saving treatment, prevention, and care.

Thanks to such support, Claire and her siblings in Rwanda are on the path to a brighter future. Claire’s parents died of AIDS when she was 17 years old, leaving her to care for her three younger siblings and two cousins. HIV positive herself, Claire was forced to rent their house for income and move her family into the backyard shed. In 2005, FXB International stepped in and provided the family with food, educational support, health care, HIV treatment, and grants to operate a small business. Today, Claire is a student at the Kigali Institute for Science and Technology, where she studies dietary therapy for people living with HIV. FXB continues to send her siblings and cousins to school, so that the children now enjoy a better chance of achieving their full potential.

In urban slums in South Africa, students like Nomthandazo are benefiting from HIV prevention and school support programs. In her early teens, Nomthandazo’s father passed away and her mother later died from AIDS. Although Nomthandazo’s aunt helped ensure that her basic needs (food shelter, medicine) were met, Nomthandazo had no one to teach her about sex, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections.

Fortunately, Nomthandazo’s teachers recognized her need for guidance and support. Nomthandazo was enrolled in an after-school program operated by FXB International. Through the program, Nomthandazo was able to learn important health and life skills including HIV/AIDS education and received counseling to help her cope with her grief and growing pains. She is now confident that she has the knowledge to make informed and safe choices in life.

Stories such as Claire’s and Nomthandazo’s demonstrate the need for HIV prevention, treatment, and care in resource-poor settings. Success stories like theirs can be repeated on a larger scale with full funding from Congress for PEPFAR, including orphans and vulnerable children programming.

-Kathleen Letchford, FXB USA

*Names and/or photos have been changed to protect privacy.

We Are Together opens in New York!

ONE and Keep a Child Alive are hosting screenings of We Are Together, a multi-award winning documentary that follows a children’s singing choir from Agape orphanage in South Africa:

The story:

Life has not been easy for 12-year old Slindile, her siblings and her friends at the Agape Orphanage in South Africa, where most of the children have lost their parents to AIDS. But they are still kids and teenagers, bashful around boys, squabbling with each other. And when they lift their voices in song, something extraordinary happens.

We Are Together will be screen starting this 4th of July weekend at New York’s Cinema Village. Come view the “celebration of resiliency” this weekend!
Tickets and show time info here.

-Betsy Avila

Aid to Artisans on-the-ground

My name is Willard Musarurwa. I am a craftsmaker from Cape Town, and want to tell you about how Aid to Artisans has changed my life. You can watch my video , “How Does Aid to Artisans Make a Difference?” below.

Before meeting Aid to Artisans, I was sinking into deep trenches of desperation. Time was going by and I realized I had to make a living, sooner rather than later. I decided to be creative. When we were teenagers, we used to make cars, bicycles and animals for fun out of wire. This time, I did it to sell to tourists who come to Cape Town. It became my job although the income I generated was not sufficient, constant or regular, so I still couldn’t prepare a budget. I had to grow.

I decided to approach the Cape Crafts and Design Institute for assistance and luckily, I met Aid to Artisans and Stephen Burks, an American Designer. We designed a wire table. It took us 2 years to develop until it was accepted for an exhibition. The first time it hit the market, the product was hand picked by a U.S. distributor, Artecnica. I was able to use the income to start my own business, Feeling African, which has created jobs for 9 people and myself.

I will never forget when my tables were chosen as best product in South Africa at Design Indaba 2006, when they appeared in 20 South African magazines and twice in The New York Times, in Feb. 2007 and Feb. 2008. A short film was made for my product. We now have a studio to work in.

We still have a long way to go to make more products and to be more established with different business people and organizations. But I saw my dream come true and I will keep trying even harder.

-Willard Musarurwa (more…)

ONE Member Jake Back from South Africa

My wife and I recently traveled to Mamelodi, South Africa (30 minutes outside Pretoria) with 300 other volunteers from Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, OH. I wasn’t sure what to expect, since I had never been to Africa before, but I was very excited to experience the culture and develop relationships with the people there. I was amazed at the love, joy and hope that seemed to radiate from the townships despite the fact that most people we met were either unemployed (80%), had HIV/AIDS (40%) or did not know where their next meal would come from.

While we were there we built 10 homes, planted over 250 sustainable vegetable gardens, provided a library full of 7,000 donated books and had a children’s camp each day for over 1,000 kids! While all that is definitely an accomplishment, the most fulfilling part of our trip was the amazing friendships we developed with the South Africans. I was so encouraged by their ambition and hope for the future — something that we, as Americans, have in common.

While I was there I wore my ONE bracelet every day just like I have for the past 4 months since I got it. On my last day, I took my ONE bracelet off and gave it to an awesome kid named Kevin—who I developed a good relationship with and who seemed to like me as he was by my side every time I turned around.

The experiences I had in South Africa will last a lifetime and it has encouraged me to become more involved in the ONE Campaign and try harder to get other people involved to help make a positive difference in Africa. ONE can have a tremendous impact on people living in poverty and I believe it’s my responsibility to help support ONE’s efforts.

-Jake Armentrout, ONE Member, Cincinnati, OH