AHOPE for Children News

May-June, 2005

Dear Friends;

 

     So much has happened in the past couple of months. Many changes, many events, most for the good:

 

     In April, the team of specialists from Columbia Medical School, organized by World Wide Orphans Foundation, spent a week in Addis Ababa.  They led workshops and training sessions for 40 pediatricians from throughout Ethiopia and other staff persons working with HIV infected children.  The doctors also examined each of the HIV positive children at AHOPE Ethiopia.  Everything is in place for the beginning of the ARV regimen for the children in our care, HOWEVER the Ethiopian government has been slow to approve the import of the medications and permission for their use.  Bureaucracy and red tape are a frustrating reality in any undertaking in Ethiopia and we continue to work diligently to get the various permits.

 

    The May 2, 2005 issue of People Magazine has a four-page article on the medical conference in Addis.  Some of you may recognize the children featured in the article and will note that their names were changed to protect their privacy.  Most unfortunately, contact information for AHOPE for Children was edited out for space reasons in the “How to Help” sidebar with the result that we have had so far very little response to the article.  However, WWOF has received many donations to help provide medical care so, ultimately, these donations will benefit our kids.

 

     AHOPE Ethiopia’s new Communication Assistant has been hard at work.  Many of you who are sponsors will be receiving updated reports on the child you have sponsored with this newsletter.  If you don’t receive a report, please be patient—it will arrive eventually.

 

     One of the results of the completed reports has been that all 16 of the HIV negative children at AHOPE Ethiopia were provided with the documentation and subsequent government approval necessary to allow them to be placed for adoption.  At the end of April, all of the negative children were moved to Layla House, the Adoption Advocates International facility in Addis Ababa, where they will be in care until they are placed with adoptive families.  Layla House provides excellent care with a focus on preparing children to move into a new culture and a new family.  Most of the children are adopted in the United States so they are taught English and social skills that will give them confidence in their new homes. Everyone cried when the children left, but we all know that we must allow the children in our care the opportunity to have a new family. The sponsors who have been supporting negative children will be receiving a final report and a new assignment of a positive child.  There is a vast sea of children in need of care so we expect that the vacancies created when the negative children departed will soon be filled. In fact, the plan is to increase the numbers up to 100 children in care so please spread the word about sponsorships and donations to help with this expansion.

 

     On the other hand, we are now taking a new look at what we once considered to be children who were “unadoptable” because of positive HIV status.  At the moment, we have two children at AHOPE in the adoption process who are HIV positive and I have received several additional serious enquiries from potential adoptive families in the past months.  Those who enquire have been, for the most part, persons who are very familiar with HIV AIDS through their work and/or professional training.  The more knowledgeable they are about the realities of raising a child with HIV, the more confidence they express in their ability to be a parent to an infected child.  Realistic and frank discussion has certainly been an education to me.  Ongoing improvement in medical treatments and management of HIV gives additional hope for the future.  For that reason, the HIV positive children in care at AHOPE Ethiopia will no longer be called “unadoptable”.   None of us expect that there will be a rush to adopt the positive children, but if a qualified family wishes to adopt a qualified orphan with  HIV+ status, we will not stand in the way.  We are especially eager to hear from persons who would adopt siblings, one of whom is infected, so that they can grow up together.  At the moment we have an 8-year-old healthy boy at Layla House who wants very much to be placed with his 5-year-old sister who has HIV and is at AHOPE Ethiopia.  There are other orphaned sibling pairs or groups in the same situation.

 

     The AHOPE for Children office will be closed from June 4 through June 17 for vacation.  There will be mail pick-up but receipts for donations and answers to letters  and telephone messages will be delayed for the duration.  I will be checking my email on a regular basis, so if someone needs to contact me quickly, try email.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 Kathryn Pope Olsen