Eva was fondly called “everybody’s friend.” At 10 years of age, she was young and tender. The most striking feature about her countenance was the long, delicate, silken hair that framed her beautiful face.

It was often said of her at Bugolobi Child Development Center, where I worked as a child development officer, that Eva would not need to go to a salon because “the salon in heaven did a good job.”

Eva always had a smile for everyone, including strangers, but behind her radiant smile raged a monstrous battle. Opportunistic diseases attacked her daily.

One day, Eva would be bedridden with malaria; another day, it would be a severe cough.

We just did not know what to expect. As such, her Saturdays, when the development center expected her, were often pre-empted by trips to the local hospital. Eva had acquired HIV at birth from her late mother.

One day as I was reviewing the attendance register, it occurred to me that Eva had not attended the center programs for nearly a month.

She had not written a letter to her sponsor, nor had she been available for her child-update photograph. Neither Eva nor her father had given any reason for her lengthy absence.

Nicholas, the center director, and I walked to the shack where Eva’s father lived and asked him about his daughter. He said he had sent her to visit her family in Kawolo, the family’s ancestral village in the far-away district of Lugazi. Her father assured us she would return soon.

After a month, Eva had not returned. Her father avoided Nicholas and me, leaving his shack early in the morning under the guise of going to work and returning late at night after Nicholas and I had closed the office.

We had every reason to end Eva’s sponsorship because she was no longer benefiting from the center programs. An integrity issue was at stake, for Eva’s sponsor was remitting money to the center every month.

It took a group of children in Bugolobi’s Middle East slum to inform us that Eva’s father had abandoned her in Kawolo.

Earlier, when our child development center conducted HIV testing for all the children in the sponsorship program, Eva had tested HIV-positive. Her father received the information but refused to take the test himself.

When Eva’s condition worsened into full-blown AIDS that was visible to onlookers, he no longer wanted to be associated with her. He was afraid his friends and colleagues would think that since his daughter was HIV-positive, then he, too, was HIV-positive.

Eva’s father decided to bundle up the little angel and take her to Kawolo village to “save his face.” When we finally were able to approach him, he showed remorse for his actions.

We hired an ambulance and paramedics and drove to Kawolo village in Lugazi district. We arrived in the heat of the noonday African sun. Beautiful Eva lay shivering, as though it were winter, on a bare mat in a derelict thatched hut.

She had thinned so much that her skeleton protruded beneath her skin. Her lovely hair had fallen out. Eva’s lips had transformed into a wound so big that she was unable to eat. I could not tell how long it had been since she had last eaten.

Eva could not move any part of her body except for her frightened eyes. She saw me and tried to say something but was unable to form words.

The paramedics immediately put her on an intravenous drip and carried her to the ambulance. I rode in the front of the ambulance, worried that Eva would die before we could get her to the Joint Clinical Research Center, the leading hospital in Uganda for HIV/AIDS research.

At the hospital Eva received a clean, warm bed and the best medical care Uganda could offer. Slowly she began to improve and gain weight. She started to smile again, but she had lost her ability to speak.

I visited her in the hospital every day and prayed with her. I delivered flowers and get-well cards from her friends and staff at the child development center and from concerned parents. Eva’s recovery was remarkable.

With Christmas festivities approaching, Eva greatly missed her family in Kawolo. She had been in-hospital for three months, and the medical personnel decided that it was now safe to discharge her so she could join her family for Christmas.

It was a joy for Nicholas, the medical personnel and me to watch Eva step out of the hospital. We placed her in a taxicab and bid her farewell to reunite with her family. Then we, too, went to be with our families for Christmas.

On Boxing Day, I received a phone call that Eva had died.

I froze. I asked God, “Why? How?” It felt as though a part of my being had been severed. I traveled for the burial. The entire village came to mourn Eva.

A scuffle erupted as to what mode the burial should take. Some of Eva’s family were Muslim and others were Seventh Day Adventist. Each wanted to bury Eva in accordance with their religion.

Finally, a tough-speaking man rose up from among the mourners and rebuked the two warring factions.

He told them that when Eva was alive and suffering, none of them cared for her. The only people who cared for her were from Compassion International.

He told them that Eva did not die a Muslim or a Seventh Day Adventist. She died having confessed Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior.

At that moment, the mourners burst into tears and sang Uganda’s famous revival song, “Tukutendereza Yesu.” Translation: “Praise Jesus.”

I was given opportunity to speak as the Compassion International representative; I gave an altar call. Several people – including Eva’s father – gave their lives to Christ and we joyfully laid Eva to rest.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gerald Kateu served as a child development officer with Bugolobi Child Development Center for seven years before joining our Uganda field office as sponsor and donor services associate in July 2008.

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AIDS and poverty. Poverty and AIDS. One doesn’t cause the other, but for children and families living in extreme poverty, AIDS is especially devastating.

Several factors multiply the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

One is the lack of prevention education.

Another is the high cost of treatment and the difficulty of getting the lifesaving medicinal tablets that travel 10,000 miles to travel that last mile, into the hands of the people who need them.

To travel beyond the clinic and into the slum. To travel down the dusty roads in the rural areas. And up the hills and down into the valleys to the out-of-the-way places.

Other factors of poverty contributing to the incidence of HIV/AIDS include:

• poor health facilities
• communication and transportation difficulties
• unstable governments
• the prevalence of environmental diseases

Currently, less than 10 percent of HIV-positive children in need of treatment are being treated.

This year the World AIDS Day global focus is on zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

Which is a big deal when you consider that more than 6,800 new HIV infections occur daily, worldwide, and more than 5,700 people die of AIDS each day.

But beyond the death and physical illness, among the many challenges facing people living with HIV/AIDS are the stigma and discrimination that come with it.

People living with HIV/AIDS in extreme poverty are still feared, avoided and ostracized. People who overcome their fears and get tested for HIV are often still afraid to speak out and educate or advocate for others – which is why we have this blog post.

AIDS and poverty. Poverty and AIDS. If you care about releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name, then that means you should care about fighting AIDS.

So get out there and fight.

Do one thing today (World AIDS Day), one thing with purpose, one thing to help the world get to zero and bring some glee to a child.

Sources: www.childinfo.org, www.unaids.org, www.unicef.org

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World AIDS Day 2011 is about zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

Depending on how you look at it, and taken individually, those could be small things to accomplish, or they could be pretty big things, beyond our ability to achieve.

When talking with friends, I’ve come across a few things that are just too big for me to comprehend. I don’t understand the vastness of the universe. I don’t get how it’s supposedly constantly expanding.

How is that possible if there is no edge?

I don’t grasp the concept of time going on for eternity in each direction. These things boggle my simple mind.

And then, there are some things that are so SMALL they are beyond my comprehension. I don’t understand how something so tiny that it can only be seen through a microscope can cause irreversible damage to the human body.

Yet, to date, over 33 million people — spread out on every continent — are struggling with a tiny little terrorist in their blood streams, attacking healthy cells, breaking down the person’s immunity … and no one knows how to stop it.

I’m talking, of course, about HIV/AIDS.

This past summer, a few reports came out that scientists have discovered a new, breakthrough treatment for HIV/AIDS. I’m so glad there are people out there who can comprehend the small things beyond my grasp.

I’m glad there are those who spend their careers constantly peering through microscopes to take on the dangers the rest of us cannot see.

Regardless of my limitations, there is one thing I do understand: There are over 16 million children who have been orphaned because of this terrible disease.*

16,600,000.

I want you to see the whole number. That’s how many little boys and girls have lost mommy or daddy to the invisible invader.

If HIV/AIDS was a masked intruder, we’d do whatever it takes to put him behind bars. If it was a government, we’d demand invasion until the leaders were toppled and the children freed. If HIV/AIDS were anything our minds could grasp, we wouldn’t sleep until they were gone for good.

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day 2011. Please join me in praying for the 5,000 people who will die today, tomorrow, and every day after, because of HIV/AIDS.

I ask that you say a prayer for the millions of children who will lose a parent and the millions of others who will lose a son, daughter, friend or relative.

And please pray for those who comprehend the small things. Pray for those who are fighting to stop this awful pandemic. Pray they receive wisdom, insight and opportunity.

Sometimes the small things … are very big things indeed.

*Source: USAID

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Today is a solemn day of reflection – World AIDS Day, a time set aside to bring global attention to the devastation of this silent killer.

At Compassion, World AIDS Day is also a day of gratitude for caring friends like you who have so generously given to ease the suffering, in Jesus’ name, of the AIDS-affected children and families we serve together.

It is my privilege to provide you with a downloadable report that details the effects of your compassion on the lives of children impacted by AIDS.

Thank you for taking to heart the Bible’s command in 1 John 3:18 to “not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

You are bringing the light of Christ’s love into the lives of those who truly need it the most. May God richly bless you!

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Today is World AIDS Day. As I prepared to write this post, I read through tons of articles, documents, and books about HIV and AIDS. And I was struck by:

• the amount of information that is readily at my fingertips.
• the number of lies and misconceptions that are floating around about the subject.

Image courtesy of worldaidsday.org

Today, I’d like for you to take a step out of your cultural perspective and into a life in sub-Saharan Africa, into the lie of poverty. Imagine you are a young mother in Tanzania. Your father has just died – and you know why.

AIDS has claimed his life, but your family is too ashamed to tell your neighbors this. Instead, you tell the neighbors that he died from malaria.

On top of that, you’re scared because you and your 2-year-old son lived in the family hut with him. Hundreds of thoughts cross your mind: “Do I have AIDS? I’ve eaten food after my father and I know I’ve hugged him many times. Will I die? I don’t think there is a treatment for AIDS.”

Instead of going to a clinic to get tested, you live in fear of what might be. After all, getting tested is seen to be shameful among those in your community.

What troubles me the most about this “story” is that it’s not fake. There are potentially millions of young mothers going through this situation right now.

They believe the lies that poverty tells about HIV and AIDS.

• HIV testing is unreliable.
• HIV can be spread by sharing food or hugging an affected individual.
• HIV is transmitted by mosquitoes.
• An HIV-positive mother cannot have children.
• HIV only affects drug users.
• If an individual is receiving treatment for HIV or AIDS, he or she can’t spread the virus.

We can easily educate ourselves with books, the Internet, visits to the doctor, etc. However, these resources aren’t as readily available to those in the developing world surviving on less than $1.25 a day. The truth about HIV is that it’s a preventable and treatable disease.

So today, I have a very short to-do list for you: Do something to spread awareness about the truth of HIV and AIDS.

It’s a pretty simple task. Here are a few places that’ll help you get started:

• AIDS.gov
• ONE.org
• WorldAIDSCampaign.org
• WorldAIDSDay.org

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We eat rice, millet pastry and beans. As we are only two, I cook once a day. After breakfast, I cook and we eat the meal at noon, and in the evening I reheat the leftovers and we eat.

We are living in an urban area. We have electricity and running water in the community, but only for those who can afford it. We also have a medical center in the neighborhood. Most people sell small items to feed their families.

I discovered my daughter was HIV-positive in 2005. She was suffering from severe chickenpox. The treating doctor suggested us to take an AIDS test. We agreed, and the child was declared HIV-positive.

I do not know how she got the disease, if it was during her birth or during the blood transfusion she got when she was very little.

My daughter does not yet know she is HIV-positive, but I will surely tell her. As I do not know how she will react, I am looking for the right moment to tell her.

I am also HIV-positive, but I do not know how and when I got infected. When the doctor discovered that my daughter was HIV-positive, he encouraged me to take the test and that was how I came to know.

I was very shocked when I found out. I was asking myself how I would live with the disease and how others would react.

Four years after being declared HIV-positive, I am still asking myself the same questions. And sometimes I even think of killing my daughter and committing suicide. I would not like to die and leave my daughter alone. Who will take care of her?

I have found no way out of this. In fact, it is because I do believe that God can make a way that I am still alive; otherwise I would have killed myself long ago.

People living with AIDS are not seen well. They are criticized and stigmatized. Whenever people know or even suspect you are HIV-positive they stop talking to you and won’t come to your house anymore.

My daughter and I are under antiretroviral drug therapy (ART) since 2005, just after the AIDS screening test.

My daughter takes lamivudine, aloe-vera and zidovudine. She takes one tablet of each drug in the morning and in the evening.

As for me, I take aloe-vera and zidovudine. I also take one tablet of each drug in the morning and in the evening.

So far we feel good and have not yet experienced any side effects. The doctor said that my daughter may start to vomit, or her eyes and hands may turn white, and he told me to bring her to him in this case. But so far everything is all right.

I would like God to give long life to my child. I am praying for God to make her succeed in life and be self-sufficient, and the Lord knows where to put her.

She has not yet told me about her dream, but she uses to say that when she grows up and gains a lot of money she will build a big house. I always tell her, “The Lord will give you long life and ability to achieve what you plan to do!”

After Azalea shared about her circumstances with me, she and her daughter took part in a sensitization campaign for caregiveres at the child development center.

People in Azalea’s community believe that they will be infected if they dare get close to HIV-positive people. Through these sensitization campaigns that Azalea’s church conducts from time to time, many people in the community have started to learn about the disease, and the stigma is decreasing.

When Azalea and her daughter returned home, the daughter asked so many questions that Azalea seized the opportunity to talk about their HIV-positive statuses.

The daughter asked many questions to understand more about HIV and AIDS. They talked positively, and there was no negativity. Praise God!

*Azalea is not the mother’s real name. Her name was changed for this blog post to protect her privacy.

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Today, World AIDS Day, we honor you and the global impact you have on behalf of our Savior and the work He is doing in the lives of children affected by this disease.

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And in those five years, we have made some incredible strides, taken some risks, and as a result have sustained the lives of more than 20,000 of our beneficiaries, caregivers and siblings.

We began the AIDS Initiative because of an increasing awareness of the impact of HIV and AIDS, specifically in Africa. The virus had already done plenty of damage, and as our programs in Africa grew stronger, we were ready to embark on a new challenge — one that would have an enduring impact, give hope and save countless lives.

As Christians, we felt we had a mandate to do something more to impact the kingdom.

When we first began, the scientific community was still skeptical that Africans with AIDS could take the medicine that would keep them alive. While the sense of urgency was growing, commitments to fund the provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) were not.

Aware of this tension, and the great need within our own programs, we sought the Lord and felt a confirmation that thrust the AIDS program ahead like never before.

We committed to the provision of the antiretroviral therapy before we really knew the extent of the impact. We just knew that we could not wait any longer, and by providing the highly sought-after ART for those with AIDS, we gave hope to those who prior to this, would not even think about getting tested.

Getting tested was risky, and finding out you were HIV-positive was pretty much suicide, because once that was known to others, a paralyzing stigma and discrimination flourished within communities and ART medicine was unlikely to be acquired.

But with your support we were able to do what few non-government organizations could. As a result, more and more children and their parents have been tested for HIV, as the hope of treatment and support gives them the confidence to do so.

For the first few years, we continued to provide the ART and other essentials, including nutritional support, medical care and testing as well as support for income generation. Our health workers made visiting HIV-positive children and caregivers part of their daily routine.

These were exciting days for the ministry, as we saw the impact of the decision to move this initiative forward. Lives were being sustained. Hope was being given. We went the last mile and that last mile was the difference between life and death.

In just the past few years, a blessing came to the international community. The commitment to providing ART through the Global Fund, PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief), President Bush’s lasting legacy, and other multi-lateral organizations has changed the face of this pandemic.

Though the need is still great, and more than 33 million people worldwide are estimated to have HIV, the international commitment to the pandemic has been encouraging.

Following President Bush’s last term, his efforts to contribute to this fight through PEPFAR have been highly lauded. But despite all the commitments, the funds to continue the support are at risk due to the current global economic crisis. As a result, Compassion may once again be in the position of having to provide for ART.

But as Christians with a strong faith in the Lord, we know that if this day comes again, we will do what we did before, and step out in faith to meet the most critical needs of this vulnerable group.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to walk The Last Mile.

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In the global fight against AIDS, the international community has brought access to lifesaving antiretroviral therapy (ART) to many health facilities around the world, but not all. Those lifesaving tablets that travel 10,000 miles sometimes don’t make it far enough.

“Because a jar on a dusty shelf in the clinic must not be the goal of the journey. We cannot congratulate ourselves and call that jar “access”. The jar on the shelf is not “access” – it is merely inventory.

“The entire business is a bitter failure without the last mile. It is the last mile that has proven to be the most difficult. It is a mile beyond the government’s reach. It is the mile into the hurting world and broken heart of the 9-year-old orphan living in the slum.

“The jar of pills traveled ten thousand miles but it needed to travel ten thousand – and one.”

– Scott Todd, Senior Ministry Advisor at Compassion

With our AIDS Initiative, Compassion is bringing the global fight “The Last Mile,” beyond the clinic, down dusty roads, through garbage-infested slums, up hills and into valleys to our church partners and beyond to the homes of our families.

True access to care means going beyond the clinic to the families who are waiting for the hope that only this medicine can bring.

Without ART, lives would be lost and families wrecked.

Our work fills the void, closes the gap and goes the Last Mile … not only in ensuring true access to the ART, but in the holistic approach to HIV and AIDS.

Our health workers know our families well, and visit those who are HIV-positive often, finding out what they need and how they are doing.

Our workers deliver care and support through the church, with the hope of Jesus Christ, to each family.

When a child needs to go to the hospital for care or testing for blood counts, we are there, realizing that without the support to get to the health center or hospital, all of the technology in the world is useless.

The machines used to count white blood cells, the x-ray machines to look for suspicious masses and infections, the medicine to treat opportunistic infections, and the medicine to help keep those with AIDS alive … all would be rendered useless without our church partner’s health workers who work as advocates, educators, comforters and confidants to our families.

When a child needs additional nutritional support to stay strong, our workers are there. When a distraught parent needs someone to talk to about a diagnosis of HIV, our workers are there.

When a mud hut is crumbling because a family affected by HIV and AIDS has lost its livelihood, our church partners are there to help the family regain their dignity.

One mile is not far, but for those living in poverty, with little contact with the outside world, that last mile is the difference between life and death.

“The Last Mile takes counseling, home visits, facilitating transport, payment for clinical services, lab tests and medicines including antiretroviral drugs. It takes a willingness to go the distance. It takes perseverance.

“The Last Mile takes people filled with compassion, whose faith and hope come from a deeper spring than the world has ever known. People of uncommon strength to walk the slums. People strong enough to carry joy in the dark. People with their hands busy at the work of healing today’s hurts even as their eyes remain fixed on eternity.

“Where do we find such people? They are already gathered. They are crowded into little rooms in the slums, in the city centers, and even in the forests. They gather to sing praise to Jesus Christ, to pray for each other and for their hurting world. They are His people, His Church.

“The Last Mile takes followers of Jesus Christ doing ministry the way Jesus did it – holistically. It takes His Church.”

– Scott Todd

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As the Body of Christ, caring about this disease, which is primarily spread through deviant behavior (though certainly not all the time), it is our chance to do the unexpected … to care for those infected with HIV, no matter the cause.

And with World AIDS Day next week, it’s as good a time as any to act like the person who came to save us.

What Is AIDS?

Many people know the terms HIV and AIDS, and often use them interchangeably, and as a result, incorrectly.

HIV is a virus, the human immunodeficiency virus, one of the most persistent and complicated viruses of all time.

This virus causes the body to become immunodeficient, which means that it causes the body’s immune system to be weakened, which makes the body’s defense system not work as well as it could and as a result, become more susceptible to infections.

AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. AIDS is a result of HIV. It is the last stage of an HIV infection.

A person first gets HIV, and then later, usually years later, will develop AIDS.

A CD4 cell is a type of white blood cell sometimes called a T cell. A person is diagnosed as having AIDS when his or her CD4 cell count drops below a certain level, around 300 cells per millimeters cubed (mm3). The normal range is between 500-1,600 CD4 cells per mm3.

Over time, a person with HIV will lose these cells through destruction by HIV. Then that person will be more vulnerable to infections … opportunistic infections.

Without treatment, the opportunistic infections will eventually claim the life of a person infected with HIV. But treatment is available and it is called ART, which stands for antiretroviral therapy.

Because of the advent of ART, those who once were hopeless and waiting to die now have a second chance. But really why should we care about AIDS?

Why Should We Care About AIDS?

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t view us, the Body of Christ, as people who respond indiscriminately to such a disease.

Jesus healed the blind and lepers and never stopped to judge them or think that they had been cursed. He cared about people … all people, and through the words of Matthew 25 or 1 John 3:16-18, encourages us to do the same.

Jesus speaks of seeing the needs of others and moving beyond this to care for others and their needs … except for those with HIV and AIDS. Right?

No. He meant that we should meet the needs of all those we encounter, whether the needs are physical, emotional or spiritual.

I see the words of these passages as a direct command to jump in, feet first, to the situations we encounter, and in this day and age, there are more than 33 million people in the world living with HIV, some with AIDS. They are battling daily to fight the emotional toll of this disease and the discrimination that comes with it.

There are plenty of opportunities for us to help. And because ART is available, the once-grim prognosis of someone with AIDS is now one of hope.

And because of how Compassion works, we fill in the gaps of care that the government is unable to commit to. By doing so we give great hope to those who a few years ago would have felt very lost and very discouraged.

People who die of AIDS often die in a similar manner as those with cancer, but without the support of loved ones, friends and the community.

AIDS is real, and though there are many more diseases in our age that are also very important to address, this one presents challenges that few can rival.

From the biochemistry and immunology of the virus to the stigma and discrimination that those infected face, HIV and AIDS need attention on all levels … but mostly in the willingness of Christians to live up to the book that we all follow.

This is our chance. The virus has been around for more than 25 years. Let’s be aware, care and dare to make a difference.

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