In honor of Eath Day & giving

Overview

AFCA exists to save the next generation of children affected by the AIDS pandemic. We do this by providing medication and food to HIV+ children, their HIV+ guardians and HIV+ pregnant women. We also send new, sterilized medical supplies and equipment to be used in rural areas, allowing people in those areas to be treated with dignity and respect.

Mission

The mission of American Foundation for Children with AIDS is to improve the lives of children and youth struggling with the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We provide cost-effective relief, services, medical and social support, education and advocacy to help these victims achieve their full life potential.

Programs

In response to inequities in the availability of anti-retroviral treatment (ART) and the growing number of children being orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, AFCA has implemented a life-saving program to deliver free ARV medications and supplies to children and their caretakers suffering from AIDS. To date, AFCA has secured and shipped over $12,200,000.00 in donated medications to our six qualified treatment centers in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda. No only do we provide anti-retroviral medicine, but we provide medication to fight opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis, malaria, oral thrush, and AIDS-related cancers.

While in Uganda in 2007, AFCA was asked to provide capacity in the form of equipment and supplies to rural clinics and hospitals in order to give people from those communities the opportunity to be cared for closer to home. To that end, AFCA started sending new, sterilized medical supplies and equipment to Uganda, where they are under the care of our partner, Mulago Hospital Pediatric Infectious Disease Center, for delivery and use in rural clinics serving HIV+ people. These items include such things as hospital beds, wheelchairs, crutches, syringes, needles, catheters, examination tables, sutures, and lamps.

Besides medicine and medical supplies, AFCA also collaborates with our partner hospitals in Kenya to provide them with ATMIT (easily digestible maize and soy based porridge), blankets, hygiene kits, nursery kits, and other necessities specifically intended for AIDS orphans who must fend for themselves.

In Zimbabwe we partner with a local non-governmental organization called ZOE (Zimbabwe Orphans through Extended Hands), which extends care to over 75,000 AIDS orphans. Through ZOE’s work, the children not only receive the medication we send, but they also receive foster home, counseling, food, and education. AFCA provides antibiotics for HIV+ children and living HIV+ guardians, keeping full-flown AIDS at bay.