UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS

June 1, 2008

Visit to children orphaned by AIDS in the Rutsiro District

Hello friends! Hope this blog finds you well, that your daily activities to make the world better for children and others are going well and that your families are fine as well! As I try to keep up the good work in our fight against HIV and AIDS here in Rwanda, I visit many areas across the country to monitor HIV and AIDS interventions. This is a real eye opener on the impact the AIDS pandemic has on people’s lives. It is frightening. That’s why I feel it is important for me to tell you about my daily work, particularly, about my visit a few weeks ago to children orphaned by AIDS in the Rutsiro District.

The interventions there assist 882 orphans; among them, some are HIV-positive themselves, some lost both parents while others lost one parent. Rwanda today has a very young population with a high number of orphans in general. AIDS is believed to have contributed to an estimated 1,364,000 children who became orphans.

While I was at the center, I had a conversation with six children, three were HIV-positive. Some of these children were now heading households in the absence of adult caregivers.

Dative Imanizabayo is one of the six children I had a conversation with that day. She is 13 years old and HIV-positive. She is on antiretroviral treatment. Her parents died of AIDS when she was just 2 years old and now she lives with her grand-mother. The grand-mother cannot do heavy work as she is very old. Dative is in primary school and is a good student. She likes hand ball and does many other activities, among them, cooking. She cooks very well and likes to talk about recipes. Dative is a very intelligent and articulate girl. She says she wants to study and become a minister in the government.

Let me share with you here a few lines she wrote.

“I coped with my serological status,

I accepted it, I cannot commit suicide,

I trust and I hope I will make it.”

I too have trust and believe in children like Dative. With your support, these children can make it.