Three Very Ordinary Children....Or are they ????
Updated: Feb 6
Every child is unique ...it is said no one person in the entire world we live in are the same...we all have different DNA .
The three children who are the centre piece of this blog are really special and are three of the biggest battlers in life....they were all born with AIDS.
AIDS is the forgotten disease.......pushed to one side with other world worries....COVID being one of them.
Here are the facts....
* There are over 13.7 million children in AFRICA with AIDS.
* 90% of the worlds children with AIDS are in Africa.
*In 2020 a child is infected with AIDS / HIV EVERY 2 MINUTES.
*One child Dies of AIDS EVERY 5 MINUTES.
How do children get AIDS /HIV ? HIV can pass from a mother with HIV to her child during pregnancy , child birth ,or breastfeeding, this is called perinatal transmission of HIV . Many people get confused with AIDS and HIV. The easiest way to explain it is...
HIV is the virus ...AIDS is the condition.AIDS is late stage 3 HIV infection.
Put even more simply HIV attacks the immune system . If DETECTED EARLY there is a good chance of recovery....but this is near impossible in Africa as health services are often very basic and inadequate and is priced way beyond those who are literally surviving day to day. Our three children at the Orphanage of Hope are the lucky ones... they receive Antiretroviral treatment ....but it comes at a cost. Every month we sent specifically around $400 to keep these children alive.
After around 18 months they have to have a full blood transfusion which for them is extremely painful. Often it needs to be done as their condition worsens....in the case of Issac ...he was two hours from dying ( He had to go on a crowded public bus for 10 hours from Kabale Hospital Intensive care to Kampala the capital)
Dalaine and I covered the cost from our savings....as we didn't have enough from monthly MMNC donations to cover this cost....and the cost was close to $2500 .
The lives these three children are able to lead are so greatly enhanced from the certain death they would have faced...and we are grateful that they are an integral part of our Orphanage of Hope.
Lindsay Walker 01 February 2023
Issac......
Daphne
Prossy
