UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS

September 1 2008

Our commitment to Lydia

Dear friends,
I want to share with you the feelings I had when I heard the stories of HIV-positive children who were speaking to me during a recent trip. In late August, we had a Child Health Week across the country. Health interventions were implemented to help decrease child and maternal morbidity and mortality in 30 districts across Rwanda’s four Provinces. I was one of many supervisors of that campaign who were sent to different Districts. I supervised the Ngorero District in various sectors where the hospital of Muhororo operates. During one of my four days as supervisor of the campaign, I met with children living with HIV and AIDS. The care and support of such children is my passionate cause. 

During my conversation with the six children I met, who were between 7 and 12 years old, I noticed some commonalities amongst all these children. You know how children can be very innocent; they just take what they are given faithfully. During our conversation, we laughed, we sang and we shared nice stories. I am happy to say that three of the children I met that day are among the ones I visited last year in December---Time to Draw the Line, January diary, 2008, and I can assure you that they still look healthy, strong and happy, and they are progressing in their studies. Now are we prepared to help these children reach their adulthood?

Psychosocial support is also a component of our programme to release all the fears and discrimination that comes with HIV and AIDS. With proper treatment, they can reach their adulthood. When children receive treatment on time, when they are followed and monitored and when they receive the needed care and support, they can live much longer. Scaling up the treatment of children affected by HIV and AIDS is crucial to save more lives.

During my time with the children of the Ngorero District, we talked about their vision and I was amazed by their thoughts and words. Take Nishimwe Lydia, a bright 10 years-old girl studying in primary school. Lydia is the second in her class of about 40 students. She lost both her parents and lives with her grand-mother who is very old. Lydia told me: “You know mammy, when I found out that I had HIV, I just comforted myself in my heart. I gave myself courage to be able to keep on”.  Her vision is to become a doctor, a ‘generalist doctor” as she specified for she knows doctors can have specialisation. With your support we can save lives. Our commitment is very important to Lydia and the children like her.