reprinted from Rounds
Kenya is one of the nine countries most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, according to UNAIDS/WHO (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and World Health Organization). A report by UNAIDS/WHO in 2000 estimated there were 2.1 million Kenyans infected and that more than one-half million children had been orphaned as a result of parental deaths from AIDS.
Almost halfway across the globe, the Athens community continues to make contributions to help these parentless children have a better life now and a chance for a better future.
In the midst of Athens' worst snow storm in almost ten years, a benefit dinner and raffle was held in Irvine Hall to raise funds for the Kenyan Children's Fund. The Kenyan Children's Fund is a group of students and faculty organizations dedicated to supporting children affected by the epidemic in Kenya. The Athens community donated more than $3,000 that evening, exceeding the expectations of the event's organizers, who had set a goal of $2,000.
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| Gillian Ice |
"The money raised will be used to complete a new dormitory for the 42 children that live at Jaber Orphanage and School in the Muhoroni Division of Kenya," said Gillian Ice, assistant professor of social medicine and a principal organizer of the benefit.The orphanage provides food, shelter, health-care services, education and clothing. The collapse of a dormitory left these children homeless. They were sent to a village to stay with whoever was available. Children without families often live on their own in the streets or in a child-headed household.
"Without the schooling and shelter that Jaber Orphanage and others like it provide, many children in Kenya face a pretty bleak future," she said. Ice conducts research on stress and its health consequences as experienced by elderly people in western rural Kenya when they become caregivers for orphaned grandchildren. She learned of the orphanage when members of the community where she was conducting research asked her to visit it.
Ice said she would like to develop yearly projects to help children pursue education. "This gives me a very direct way to 'pay back' the communities that are assisting me with my research. Of course, education also is critical in the fight against HIV/AIDS."
This summer Ice hopes to return to Kenya with two to three medical students assisting her. "I think that my research project will provide a great experience for medical students in Kenya in conjunction with the already established SHARE Kenya program that provides health care in rural Kenya each December," she said. "They will have the opportunity to conduct health assessments, experience a very different health system and have the opportunity to experience the daily life of the people we work with. It is my hope that I am able to bring students with me every summer," she said.
Participants at the February fundraiser were reminded that there is still much to be done. With close to 100 people in attendance, despite the weather, the benefit dinner and raffle were a success. Stephen Howard, director of the Ohio University Institute for the African Child, discussed the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa - projected to claim 55 million lives on the continent by 2020 - and how the crisis might be ended.
