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Keep a Child Alive

KEEP A CHILD ALIVE is an urgent response to the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa. With more than 28 million already dead, the disease continues, wiping out whole societies, threatening economic infrastructure and creating tragic devastation in the family structure. Our work makes it possible for children and families to obtain life-saving AIDS drugs and support for survival; without this help, they would die. Keep a Child Alive gives 100% of donations to our cause.

Through our groundbreaking advertising and media campaigns, we are re-inventing the way in which the public perceives their role in this issue. Keep a Child Alive is committed to direct action, and remains small and bureaucracy free so that our speed of response is never hampered. We offer a very real solution to the problem, all on a personal scale.

WE FOCUS ON THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

TREATMENT

Anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment has transformed the lives of people with AIDS in the West, returning them from sickness to health. But fewer than 5% of children with AIDS have access to these life-saving drugs. When the children are infected, 50% die before the age of 2 and 80% die before the age of 5. When the public sign up to become monthly donors, 100% of their monthly donation goes directly to life-saving AIDS drugs and surrounding care.

CARE

This Ugandan girl sitting on her mother’s lap is being tested for HIV. If found positive, she will be put onto treatment immediately.

Keep a Child Alive provides the medical services needed to make treatment possible. Doctors, nutrition, testing, transportation, and treatment for opportunistic infections are all necessary for anti-retroviral treatment to be successful. ORPHANS Currently 15.2 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and by 2010 the number is expected to reach 25 million. 13 million of these children are in sub-Saharan Africa. These children will face enormous risks in their struggle to stay alive. They will often be forced into sexual exploitation or enrolled as child soldiers, this after the terrible trauma of losing their parents in front of them. Keep a Child Alive supports the children’s extended-family caregivers, and builds and sustains orphanages to keep the most vulnerable children out of harm’s way. Orphanages are a last resort, but unavoidable when children have no extended family to turn to.

One of the most crucial components of keeping children alive and healthy is keeping their mothers alive and healthy too. This mother is receiving care at the Icyuzuzu Clinic in Rwanda

We currently provide funding to 14 clinical and orphan care sites in 6 countries: Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda, with past funding of additional projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Recently, Keep a Child Alive expanded its work to India, where it supports an orphan care project outside of Hyderabad.

 

Keep a Child Alive's support for Alive Medical Services is not limited to purchasing drugs; our funding has enabled the clinic to scale up their services to meet the greater needs of the community. Under the guidance of the Medical Director, Pasquine Ogunsanya, Alive Medical Services has routinely exceeded its goals for adding new patients for treatment. There are currently 775 on comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment and care, including nutritional support, all laboratory services, treatment for opportunistic infections, transport, and general care. Alive also offers full VCT services and support, and provides immunizations and general care to over fifty children per month.

Watch video of Alive Medical Services patient Elisabeth