 30/11/05 |
 Tackling
the impact of AIDS
On the eve of World AIDS Day (December 1),Online Catholics' Chris
McGillion reports on an initiative by one (Catholic) Australian AIDS
organization to ease the plight of some of the 14 million children made
orphaned by the disease, most of them struggling for life in southern
Africa, and desperate to find a place called home.
Around 25 million men, women and children have died from AIDS around
the world. Another 40 million are calculated to be presently infected
and three million will die of the disease in the next twelve months.
Apart from the obvious scandal of those figures, a further 14 million
children have been orphaned by the disease.
A Melbourne AIDS charity, the Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated, has
been involved in AIDS-care work for some 20 years. Now it has now taken
some of those orphans under its wing.
“On the eve of World AIDS Day, it seemed the best time to make
the point that homelessness and AIDS travel hand in hand, that to open
your mouth and admit your infection is to get yourself discarded by
society” says Brian Haill, the founder/president of The Australian
AIDS Fund (www.aids.net.au)
“In March this year we received the most piteous SOS from a remote
village in Malawi, one of the ten poorest nations in the world, which
bills itself as ‘The warm heart of Africa’ A country of 11
million souls of whom some five million are facing starvation, one in
14 has HIV.
“The villagers who’d banded together to care for some 40
orphans, had used an internet café in the commercial capital,
Blantyre, to appeal for international assistance. They asked if we’d
build them an orphanage to house and care for 100 children. Given that
we’re probably the smallest AIDS agency in Australia, with no church
[the Australian AIDS Fund incorporated advocates the use of condoms
to prevent the spread of AIDS] or government income and no paid employees,
they might just as well have asked for three jumbo jets.”
Haill says the fund responded by buying a small house which soon became
home to 32 orphans; 17 boys and 15 girls, aged between eight and fifteen.
The make-shift orphanage was named San Michel after the home for men
with HIV/AIDS that the fund had run in Melbourne for many years.
“Fretting over the thought of them living together like sardines,
with the one toilet and the one bathing room between them and the long
everyday queues to use the facilities, we begged for help and now the
girls have a house of their own on the same half acre and their own
toilet and bathroom. A third toilet was added last month along with
a stand-alone brick kitchen, equipped with two gas stoves and some stainless
steel pots.”
When the village’s two water bores finally failed, the fund was
eventually able to find enough money to sink a new bore which will meet
the needs of the area’s 5,000 people for several years. The benefactor
was an elderly widow.
“The story of Jesus with the woman at the well has always been
one of my favourite bible stories,” Haill told Online Catholics.
“So, to mark the generosity of the woman who paid for the work,
we had the new bore named ‘Elsie’s Well’ and had some
brick seating installed around it and, soon, some fruit trees will be
planted for shade.
A five room primary school has also been built on the site and been
named “The Australian School – Orphans’ Learning Centre”.
It will cater for 300 children when it opens next January.
Until recently, the children had to rely on discarded coke bottle tops
for toys; now they have some footballs, cricket bats and hoops. A radio
cassette player provides music in San Michel and a wide-eyed audience
of 30 odd children cluster at night around the colour television set
that’s powered by a car battery.
“When we were able to give the youngsters some money to buy themselves
some new clothes, they had a great time. The photo they sent us looked
as if they’d just raided David Jones at sale time,” says Haill.
“We’ve made sure they’ll have food at Christmas and
for a month or so afterwards while we all hope the rains will come and
bring up the maize seeds in the small agricultural plot we bought for
them.
“Like the children in the village of Msema, we don’t know
when or from where our much needed donations will come from next.
“But, if you dwell on the picture of 14 million orphans, you’ll
just be crushed and think it’s all just too much. But small is
beautiful, take a handful and just do what you can. Neither they nor
we nor you need to be helpless.”
Anyone wanting to help is invited to send donations to:
The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated
PO Box 1347, Frankston,
Victoria, 3199.
Brian Haill can be contacted at bhaill@bigpond.net.au
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