For Kids Sake - Don't Stop The Aid

[Vinnie From Indy]

(reprinted with authors permission)

Even in Tough Financial Times, Life-Changing Priorities Remain

By Fran Quigley

ELDORET, KENYA. A few weeks ago here, a slender teenage boy named Victor walked into the offices for AMPATH’s program for orphans and vulnerable children. He appeared to be fighting off tears as he solemnly handed over a letter.

AMPATH stands for the Academic Model for Providing Access to Healthcare, the program that has grown out of the partnership between Indiana University School of Medicine and Moi University School of Medicine and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital here in western Kenya. AMPATH has grown into one of the largest and most comprehensive responses to Africa’s HIV/AIDS pandemic and poverty crisis, and I am privileged to serve as director of operations for the Indiana side of our efforts.

An important part of AMPATH’s work here is providing care, in the form of food, school fees, medicine and other necessities, to children who have been orphaned or left destitute by HIV. Our program directly serves 12,000 such children. Umoja, a coalition of Indianapolis and Kenyan faith-based organizations, serves thousands more in the Chulaimbo area.

After Victor’s parents died of AIDS, he became one of the children receiving support from AMPATH. That means Victor was helped by the generous people of the U.S., through the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the private donations from our Indiana community. So when Victor dropped off his letter after completing secondary school and his university entrance exams, his message was intended for all of us.

“My dear parents AMPATH,” the letter began.

“May I take this chance to return my sincere thanks and gratitude to you for enabling me to complete my high school education. For sure, you have proved to be as helpful as a brother and as concerned as a parent.

“You’re one people who brought light in my life at a time when I saw darkness engulfing my future. This was after I dropped out of school due to lack of fees and stayed at home for a whole year before I met you. You revived my hopes at a time when I saw them tumbling down like the Biblical walls of Sodom and Gomorrah.

But glory be to God, for I have finally ended the race. Thanks once again. You can proudly join me in shouting, “Yes we can.’

“Sincerely, Victor”

. Despite the fact that programs like PEPFAR make up less than 1% of our federal budget, Vice President-elect Joe Biden has mentioned the possibility of backing away from President-elect Obama’s foreign assistance goals. I recently watched a panel of solemn Washington pundits pronounce that limiting aid is an obvious step for the Obama administration.

We are certainly going through tough times domestically, so I can understand how such a move may seem obvious in the abstract. But here in western Kenya, suffering does not occur in the abstract. I wish these commentators were here to meet the families who owe their very survival to programs like PEPFAR.

For a fraction of the cost of a Wall Street bailout, we can continue to deliver hope where there was once only despair. Just ask Victor.



This column is online at http://www.indystar.com/article/20090112/OPINION12/901120318/1002/OPINION



Fran Quigley

Indiana-Kenya Partnership/USAID-AMPATH