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The American Foundation for Children with AIDS  (AFCA) helps clinics/hospitals care for HIV+ children and their guardians/caregivers in four different Sub-Saharan countries – Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  These partners vary wildly in their levels of modernization and means.  They range from full service hospitals with electricity to dried mud hut clinics.  This means our ways of helping them must vary also. In Mombasa, Kenya, AFCA has helped the Community Based Health Care and AIDS Relief Project (CBHC) in 2005.  While I was there in January of this year, I was able to see the great good this charity does to help thousands of the very [...]

Wednesday is fast approaching. Wednesday is the day I will leave for a field visit to Zimbabwe to see how the children are doing, how livestock are growing and reproducing and to meet with field staff to gather reports, determine how things are going so far and find out what we can do to make things better.  As usual, it is amazing to reconnect with old friends (the field staff) and to see the children and their guardians.  I am so looking forward to sitting down to a cup of tea and some good stories of goats and piglets being born, children drinking milk for the first time in a [...]

I was recently able to accompany American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA)’s executive director, Tanya Weaver, on her annual inspection trip to visit one of the programs we support in Mombasa, Kenya.  This was my first opportunity to see AFCA in action in Africa. I left a few days later with a much great understanding of the tremendous need for help in Sub-Sahara Africa.  The number of sick and hungry children in Mombasa is really overwhelming at first.  But, the number of children being served and cared for by AFCA is enormous, too.  I left with a greater appreciation for the vast good AFCA does, and a renewed commitment [...]

It's three days before the second annual Run for Their Lives 5k to benefit the American Foundation for Children with AIDS, and I receive an email with the question, "I know your race is rain or shine, but what about tropical storm?"  I reply with a cheerful, "The weather is going to be just fine!"  All the while I'm thinking, "Hmm, I hope so."  We've prepared for months for this event and I'm tracking the tropical storm as it makes its way up the east coast.  Not an ideal situation, but the race must go on.  However, God has mercy on us and the storm blows through the Lebanon, PA [...]

Every dollar donated toward Project One Million can purchase a month supply of antibiotics. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, and are so powerful, they can save lives. Recent studies have discovered that inexpensive antibiotics can halve the deaths by AIDS and greatly improves quality of lives of HIV+ patients. AFCA provides antibiotics for HIV+ children for them to combat HIV and other infections that may endanger their lives or be obstacles in their daily life. “This is a breakthrough in medical research which can help to save children’s lives all over the world.” – International Development Secretary Hilary Benn Co-trimoxazole is the newly discovered breakthrough. Drug resistance to [...]

Last week I spoke to several Girl Scout troops about AFCA’s work with children affected by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. The presentation, accompanied by pictures of several children in our programs, was part of the organization’s annual World Thinking Day activities, themed this year, “Together We can Save Children’s Lives.” I couldn’t agree more. What struck me most about my time with the Girl Scouts, ages 5 through 17, was how intently they listened to the stories of children who live half-way around the globe from them, surviving in the desperate circumstances they have been born into. The Girl Scouts I spoke to genuinely connected to AFCA’s mission. I told [...]

AFCA fully supports that the power of youth cannot be underestimated in a changing world. With this is mind we want to train youth in husbandry and gardening, and to purchase, transport, and deliver livestock and seeds to AIDS orphans. Once the orphans receive livestock (goats, chickens, guinea fowl, sheep, or pigs), they also receive non-genetically modified seeds to start personal gardens. While youth drink milk and eat eggs from their animals, their gardens grow, giving the kids green vegetables, corn, and peanuts while their animals reproduce and herds/flocks grow. After a predetermined amount of time, when the flocks are large, the youth are allowed to sell, barter, slaughter, and [...]

Hasn’t that phrase been completed by a hundred-and-one commercial companies?  Some try to convince you that you should buy a ring for your girlfriend at “so-and-so-store” or take him out to eat at “name-exclusive-restaurant-here”. Sometimes it seems as if that is all that Valentine’s Day means, getting caught up in some large over-rated commercial gimmick.  I tend to agree.  I don’t typically buy anything for Valentine’s Day.  I prefer to spend the money on something better.  And let’s face it; you know you often spend more than you should just because it’s the fourteenth. I have an idea.  I’ve tried it with my friends and it spread like wildfire.  Allow [...]

In the shadow of a shuttered mining operation in western Uganda, one thousand newborn babies are going home "in style," beginning their lives with dignity, thanks to the layette kits their mothers received from UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, and the American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA). "It is pleasing to know that there are people out there who feel the plight of women; that it has touched their hearts to share God’s blessings with those in need," said Musoki Hellen, who gave birth to her first child, a son, a week before Christmas at Kilembe Mines Hospital (KMH), where the kits were distributed. For many new [...]

Clean water can do much more than you may think, especially for children who have less to protect themselves. There are two keywords to take into consideration when it comes to the reasons why access to clean water can drastically enhance people’s lives. One of them is hydration and the other is sanitation.   THE IMPORTANCE OF HYDRATION It is not hard to understand why water is important for humans. Water comprises about 75 percent of human body mass and is a major component in each cell. It is said that 80 percent of the human brain consists of water. One’s bodily functions are largely dependent on water. Studies show [...]