American Foundation for Children with AIDS Inc

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.

History

American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA) is an independent international humanitarian aid organization established in 2004. AFCA is recognized as a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization incorporated in the state of Florida, USA.

AFCA believes that true success is achieved through collaboration with qualified local professionals. To this end, we partner with the following agencies to implement quality, donated anti retroviral medications and supplies to HIV positive children and their caretakers:
- Mulago Hospital in Kampapa, Uganda
- Archdiocese of Mombasa in Mombasa, Kenya
- Voi Children’s Health Program in Voi, Kenya
- St. Mary’s Mission Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya
- ZOE in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Program

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.

Impact

Our work in three Sub-Saharan countries has directly affected thousands of individuals. Over 1200 children currently receive medicine from AFCA and countless thousands have benefited from the food and medical supplies sent to Kenya and Uganda.

Goals This Year

• Secure, ship, and administer $4,000,000 worth of donated ARV and related medicine to 1000 HIV+ youth, their caregivers, and HIV+ pregnant women through our partnering HIV programs
•Secure, ship, and distribute $1M worth of donated medical supplies/equipment and ATMIT to HIV+ patients receiving care through our partnering HIV programs
•Identify and establish two new partners to provide complementary programs to existing beneficiaries (e.g. food distribution, training, etc.)
•Assess opportunities and expand programming into a new country or region with one new partner
•Disseminate educational information on pediatric HIV/AIDS to 65,000 U.S. households through telemarketing, direct mail, email, newsletters, presentations, and the internet
• Recruit 20 donors for the child sponsorship program for children with AIDS (Every Day Hero)

Chief Executive

Tanya Weaver

Chief Executive Profile

Raised overseas, Tanya has always been interested in the world around her and especially, in the plight of the poor and forgotten. As a college student, she worked in orphanages in Colombia, Brazil and Jamaica during summer breaks, further broadening her world view.

Habitat for Humanity International took Tanya to Romania, Portugal, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary and Russia, where not only did she meet her husband, but where she worked as a volunteer for four years, before moving to and working in Afghanistan as a Project Supervisor and later, Interim Country Director for Shelter for Life International. Wanting to settle down in USA for a while, it is a natural move for her to join an organization which is involved in the well being of children overseas.

A firm believer that we each have something to contribute which can help the lives of others, Tanya is very proud to be part of AFCA and looks forward to the growth of the organization as more and more children and guardians receive the medicine and help AFCA provides.

Tanya has a Master in Art Therapy from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago, IL and currently resides with her husband Eric and her daughter Julia in Harrisburg, PA.

Board

Robert Maynard, President
Nicholas Cassino, Vice-President
Mary Engelking, Secretary/Treasurer
Karen Drill, Director
Father Harold Bradley, Director
John Schaefer, Director

Countries of Operation

Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the