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Mawa is a 7 year-old girl living in Mombasa, Kenya.  She was born HIV+ and was taken to the Community Based Health Care (CBHC) facilities for care at a very young age.  There, she has received life-saving medicine and her prognosis is great!  She attends school and is involved in youth programs at the Health Care clinic, where she is counseled on taking her medicine even if she is feeling well and where she gets a chance to play with other HIV+ children with no fear of stigma. While visiting CBHC this year, I looked for Mawa at her school to see how she’s faring.  There, I was told that [...]

Real Simple recently published an article about What to Consider When Making Charitable Donations. The author, Bonnie Tsui, mentions five points to consider as you vet charities during this season of giving: Make sure that you understand the charity’s mission Verify the group’s nonprofit status Inquire about the charity’s spending ratio Look for accountability and transparency practices Ask about results At The American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA), we decided to make it simple for you by sharing what AFCA does in each of these areas. Our Mission: AFCA is a non-profit organization providing critical support to infected and affected HIV+ children and their caregivers. Since 2005, in collaboration [...]

We're so excited to partner with Lynch Creek Farm during the 2016 holiday season to sell some of the freshest, most unique and highest quality wreaths and Christmas trimmings to make your holidays all the more special. Not only will Lynch Creek delight you with their unique offerings, but they will also donate 20% to support the American Foundation for Children with AIDs. So this season, when you deck the halls, please consider purchasing holiday decor from Lynch Creek so that our kids can benefit from your purchase. Each wreath, yule log or centerpiece you purchase 20% of the funds will go to providing clean water, necessary, life saving medication [...]

Sanitary conditions for the small school in Miwani, Kenya were not sufficient or decent.  With that in mind, MacKeeper and AFCA have partnered to replace the old tin latrine with four good, solid latrines to which will serve the children and staff who attend the school.  Hygiene lessons will be taught so that children understand the need to wash hands after using the facilities and tippy-tap style washing units will be set up around the school grounds so that children have plenty of opportunities to wash their hands. Read more about this effort here.

Bob Kelly from Lebanon Valley College has joined AFCA on two different occasions, helping at schools, an orphanage, and various community areas. Check out the article regarding his trips and what he did in Zimbabwe while participating in a Vacation with a Purpose trip.  We value volunteers like Bob and encourage anyone who wants to do something worthwhile with their vacation time to join us.   READ BOB'S ARTICLE.   Don’t think you have the skills to volunteer?  Not true!  We love it when seamstresses, carpenters, administrators, teachers, parents, electricians, painters, plumbers, businessmen and women, and masons join us, for sure!  But, we also love hosting people who simply love [...]

MacKeeper is launching a new charitable campaign that is aimed at optimizing the response time of its support technicians for a good cause. With this initiative MacKeeper will make a donation to the American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA) for every customer who spends their valuable time on hold when they contact the MacKeeper support center to activate MacKeeper remotely. MacKeeper is not just a software, it also offers a complete customer support service to assist users with any software related issues. The average hold time is around 1 minute, if it takes more than 1 minute, MacKeeper will donate $1 for every 10 seconds spent by a customer [...]

Today is my birthday. Another year in this crazy, beautiful, broken, and exciting world. What a gift!  I sit here, reflecting on the past three months spent visiting AFCA’s programs in various countries.  I visited hospitals which receive medical supplies and equipment from us.  I visited children in their schools and orphanages to make sure they are healthy and learning.  I spent time with elderly guardians, inquiring about their health, needs, and dreams for the children they are raising.  I played with countless children, listening to their stories and paying attention to their dreams. I wrote various budgets for new programs, plans for expansion, and reporting formats for new projects.  [...]

It is a known fact that United States is seen around the world as a country with a “poor” diet. Following the first world pace and trends, people tend to fall into poor eating habits. Eating rituals begins to revolve around convenience for some, while for others, it is simply a matter of their budget. It is safe to say that nowadays more people choose to eat out (whether it’s fast food, or a full on wine and dine restaurant) mostly due to its convenience, and partially due to lack of time to cook. Most people believe that they don’t have enough time to cook meals from scratch even if [...]

I am a mom of three, a worker, a wife, a friend, a daughter, sister, aunt, and friend.  I am a busy person and somedays, I can’t seem to get much done. How many times have I vowed to make a change, start a new diet, get my finances on track, declutter, be more intentional… the list goes on and on. About a year ago, I started making a plan for some of these goals, and realized that taking action was not as easy as just writing a list of personal goals or New Year’s resolutions in my perfectly organized planner.  Goal-setting and resolution-making are not bad; in fact, they [...]

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe ~ Primrose. Precious. Blossom. All names that describe the beautiful girls at horse therapy I meet today. All of them with cerebral palsy and all of them affected slightly differently by it. Some of the children here today are very verbal, others can’t speak at all. Some can’t walk and must be carried and placed on their horse, with a person walking the horse and a coach on each side. Some are able to hold themselves up. I walk besides those because I am just learning. I observe Jill, the lady who runs this therapeutic program and I immediately pick out things I want to learn from her, [...]