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Today’s blog is in response to a comment on yesterday’s post on World AIDS Orphans Day left by a reader:
Sandra, I have been wanting to find a program that provides antiretrovirals to mothers in Ethiopia (our son’s birthcountry). I have posted this comment elsewhere, but never have gotten a response. Do you know of anything like this?
We would like to support such a program, much as we provide sponsorship support for orphans in our son’s first city who have the option of remaining with birth-family with assistance.
I actually wrote about 700 words on this, but lost that whole post somehow. (Yes, I’m bummed.)
Many international adoptive parents find the world opens up when their kids become part of the family. Roots in other countries mingle with the home-grown, and suddenly what’s going on 10,000 miles away is important in life-altering ways.
One fairly common response to this is a developing sense of responsibility that prompts families to get involved in problems and issues and to contribute in what ways they can toward change for the positive.
It is not unreasonable for families to desire to funnel their donations in directions specific to birth country or a segment of the population they feel particularly close to.
With this in mind thanks to the prompt from a wonderful reader, I set about to see what I could learn about programs that provide treatment to Ethiopian mothers.
On a country-specific level, I did not have much luck, but perhaps those with closer ties to the country have knowledge of local programs doing good work.
There is Addis Mieraf Ethiopia an organization with ties to People Living WIth HIB/AIDS (PLWHA) who was, a couple of years ago, trying to put together an education project to go with their work of supplying antiretrovirals to 25 people and counseling services to more than 300.
A report in the Ethiopia Herald from late 2005 highlights a group called Vision of Africa that is called a “local humanitarian organization providing free support to HIV positive mothers with a view to preventing mother-to-child transmission”, but I can’t find any follow-up info or reference to the group. Maybe someone in Addis knows about them?
And the National Association of Women with Disability in Ethiopia is said to have more than 1000 members in Tigray, Amhara and South Ethiopia Peoples State.
For a look at groups with a wider span, but very involved in Ethiopian AIDS programs, see the next post.
