Keep a Child Alive

Empowering Women in Rwanda

In February, the Keep a Child Alive Programs Team visited the Centreville Clinic that we support in Rwanda.  It was thrilling to see the impact of KCA’s support there, which continues to fulfill the dreams of women and children in need of medical care, most of whom are survivors of the 1994 genocide. Over the course of 100 days from April 6 to July 16 1994, one million Tutsis and Hutus were slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide, and as many as 500,000 women and girls were raped.  An astounding 70% of women who were raped were infected with HIV.

The scars of the genocide are still present in Rwanda, including the devastation of widespread HIV/AIDS and an orphan population growing into adulthood.  But through Keep a Child Alive’s partnership with WE-ACTx (Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment) at the Centreville Clinic in Kigali, more than 3,300 people have access to comprehensive HIV care that includes medicine, food, mental health services and skills training.

KCA’s commitment to the patients at Centreville goes beyond the medical care they need to survive.  We are dedicated to life beyond the pill - to helping our patients attain self-sufficiency and the ability to care for their families that they all desire.  During our recent visit, we met the women of the Ineza Women’s Cooperative, a group started by patients as a source of personal empowerment and economic development.  We were proud to see how they have now organized themselves into an empowered business, and to hear their personal stories of transformation.

Many of Ineza’s members are survivors of the genocide, and the cooperative serves as a space for continued emotional healing from the trauma of mass murder and rape, physical injuries, loss of family members and domestic violence.  These women, once among the most sick and impoverished in our care, can now earn a living wage and support themselves and their families.  Through education programs in design, sewing, management, computer skills and marketing, the Ineza women are always increasing their productive capacity and business savvy. These women, who were once struggling for basic necessities, are now at the helm of an expanding business that is an innovator in Rwanda’s cooperative industry.

Keep a Child Alive proudly support our patients in the Ineza Women’s Cooperative, who create the beautiful Ineza Tote Bags that are sold here on our website.  Each bag is one-of-a-kind and represents the strength and renewal of female survivors of the 1994 genocide.  The women of Ineza are building the future of Rwanda, and with your support for Keep a Child Alive, we can help expand the initiative to benefit many more women in need.

A Superwoman of KCA

Picture, for a moment, a woman who has an acclaimed medical degree, a personal letter of appreciation from Nelson Mandela and who received an international award in New York for her accomplishments, alongside stars like U2’s Bono? Where would this woman live and work and how would she be?
 
Meet Dr. Pasquine Ogunsanya, Medical Director at Alive Medical Services and relentless fighter for health care for Uganda’s poorest. Dr. Pasquine has made it her mission to provide medical care to those who need it most: since 2005 she has helped thousands of HIV-positive patients and their families in one of the poorest areas of Kampala back to health.
 
“I was born in Uganda, but went abroad, to Russia, to study for my medical degree. That’s where I met my husband, Adebiyi Ogunsanya, a Nigerian medical student, and we fell in love and married. Initially, we thought about going back to Nigeria together, but we saw that there was more need in Uganda at that time. Around 1997, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was at its peak here and people were dying left and right. So in 2002 we started working in the slums, in a smaller clinic, doing community medical services, developing prevention schemes and lobbying with the Kampala City Council and the Ministry of Health to get support in our community especially in the area of HIV/AIDS. A group of American students heard about us and took back our story to Keep a Child Alive and Alicia Keys. In December 2005 we started with only 6 patients at that small medical center, and in 2007 Keep a Child Alive moved the program to a bigger premises: Alive Medical Services and we were up to 2,000!”
 
Today, Dr. Pasquine and her team count 7,000 patients in their files, but they are far from satisfying the need for services. “There is so much need that we have already outgrown the premises. There is a nearby building that we would like to integrate into our clinic. We need more consultation rooms and a larger space for the waiting area.” With so much on her mind, she finds it hard to relax and get her mind off work. “That’s a challenge! My last holiday was to Nigeria in 2008,“ she says. “I work at the clinic every day during the week. I have the weekends off, but the time is filled with housekeeping, shopping and family. And since my husband and I work together, we tend to take work home. While I am more of a manager, he is more of the strategic leader. He has a clear vision of the direction things should be moving and I take care of the execution. It’s just the nature of our work; if you are taking care of people in the way we do, you can never stop working!”
 
Alive Medical Services is a community-based medical center in Kampala, Uganda where Dr. Pasquine and her husband Dr. Adebiyi Ogunsanya, oversee the care of children and families affected by HIV/AIDS.   When KCA first began supporting this small clinic, no one could have anticipated that it would grow in just six years to serve 400 patients a day.  Today, Alive Medical Services is a clinic of excellence with its doors always open to anyone in need - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  In the last year alone, AMS has seen an increase of 1000 patients, all of whom learned about the clinic through word of mouth in the community.  1 in every 4 people who come to the clinic for testing are found to be HIV-positive, and they have immediate access to comprehensive care.
 
In addition to serving the immediate urban community in Namuwongo, people travel for hours from the most rural villages in Uganda to reach the Alive Medical Services clinic, because it is known as a place that transforms the lives of patients with HIV/AIDS every day. Alive Medical Services is a model of HIV care in the capital city of Kampala, providing free comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment, nutritional support, prevention of mother-to-child transmission services, family planning and urgently-needed volunteer counseling and testing (VCT) to a community that would otherwise have no access to care.
 
When asked about her personal goals for the future, Dr. Pasquine quickly reverts to goals for her work. “We need to expand our medical center and get more staff. We can help so many more people,” she says and at every encounter with a client we integrate prevention . We want every client and every Ugandan to take a stand to be a point of prevention. It is clear that she has dedicated her life fully to the cause. Her immense drive will continue to move mountains in search for means to prevent, treat and take care of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Keep a Child Alive receives highest 4-star rating from Charity Navigator

At Keep a Child Alive, we take our mission seriously - we’re in the business of saving lives. We value every donation made to our cause because every dollar contributes to ongoing treatment, care, nutrition and support and that’s what we care about most. Keep a Child Alive has recently received our second consecutive highest four star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s Largest Charity Evaluator. This means Keep a Child Alive has “demonstrated exceptional financial health, outperforming most of its peers in its efforts to manage and grow its finances in the most fiscally responsible way possible.”

So thank you for giving life to the children and families we support affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India and you can trust us to continue to save lives. Read the Review

Join our team at AIDS Walk

The Keep a Child Alive AIDS Walk NY team is 52 members strong and growing everyday. We’d love for you to join our team on May 15th in Central Park - you can meet the KCA Staff and other donors who support Keep a Child Alive. If you can, register here: http://bit.ly/eudacY

We are so excited about this years’ walk and have set a goal of $10,000 more than last year.  So we are going to raise $60,000 together!

We have some AMAZING top fundraisers so far who have already been recognized by the AIDS Walk NY!  Our friend Ian Jopson has already raised $2550, and Monique Griffin is following close behind with an amazing $1,000. Why not make your goal what they have already raised? Or even better, keep on going!

Start by setting up your fundraising page, you can personalize it with photos of yourself, KCA logo, or photos from Keep a Child Alive’s media lab. (www.keepachildalive.org)

Next send an email to all your family, friends, colleagues, clients, Facebook & social networking friends. Let them know you are raising funds for HIV/AIDS affected children and families in Africa and India, and that you are trying to save their lives by helping to provide the drugs, nutrition and care they need. Remember to make sure you put the link to your fundraising page in the emails you send.  Let them know that if they do not want to contribute online that they can send you a check (made out to AIDS WALK NY) or cash (you can send that to us or bring it the day of the walk).

So help Keep a Child Alive BUY LIFE for those we support at our sites, remember the more you buy, the more you save.

Digital Death

On December 1st, World AIDS Day this year, Keep a Child Alive proudly launched our Digital Death Campaign. Created by the compassionate mind of Lisa Topol and her team at TBWA\Chiat\Day, endless hours outside of their normal work day were spent working to arrest the public’s attention in a very difficult time for fundraising. What they did not anticipate because they are kind-hearted is the immense apathy that exists toward the poor black people who populate the Continent we love: Africa. 

When recently interviewed for CNN I was asked “You have been fighting AIDS for so long, aren’t you sad that you are still doing it 25 years later?” I am so sad that I still am. There isn’t a vaccine yet, African parents and professionals are dying slow, painful deaths in front of their children, children are heading households, grandmothers are caring for numerous grandchildren in their later years – it’s a disaster of epic proportions.  And let’s not forget that these people are our ancestors.  Every single one of us walks about with African DNA in our body. 

But the American people are skeptical. They are too often asked to pay for services their Government should fund and asked to sit by while the rich get richer, the gap gets bigger and the banks, financial institutions and their higher echelon staff get paid bonuses from our taxes. The powers that be seem to want to reward the rich instead of educate the poor.
 
It’s not surprising that Americans would be tired of having to fix the worlds’ problems.  But the tragedy is that we could if we wanted to. We (the United States) are the richest nation on earth.  If only we would resist war, campaign for peace and stop electing megalomaniacs who take us to war on a whim killing millions in our name and recognize the danger we are in because of extreme poverty in other nations. If all of the costs of war in this last 10 years had been channeled into the eradication of extreme poverty, what a safe and equitable world this would be for our children.

Last week, I watched George Clooney in Sudan on Nightline.  Do you really think we could have watched an hour long documentary on the genocide in Sudan on network TV without George?  At this point every charity or humanitarian institution needs a celebrity to get media attention to fundraise for their cause. And every celebrity is bombarded every week with hundreds of desperate requests from charities to have them support their organization. 

Personally I think celebrities/artists are a great way to help the public understand an issue – there isn’t any ‘university speak’ for those who cannot follow it, no political bias and no election to win. 

The woman we owe all of our success to at Keep a Child Alive is Miss Alicia Keys.  In the past 7 years, she has raised $27 million for our organization, which we have honestly channeled into community-based clinics, orphan care centers and sexual abuse organizations in Africa allowing them to care for as many children and adults in need as possible. 10 centers in 5 countries receive our ongoing funding to save lives and bring human dignity to those left behind after AIDS deaths.  One young woman - over 300 thousand lives touched and changed for ever.

Would we really know and be as activated about Global Warming without Al Gore?  Would we know as much about the Sudan without George Clooney?  Would we know as much about Haiti today without Sean Penn or Wyclef Jean? Would we care about Refugees without Angelina?  Would we care as much about Africa without Bono?  And would we know about the issues of the world and in our own backyard without the daily missives of Oprah Winfrey? I declare not.  And AIDS?  Look at this recent report, a travesty of justice for those suffering through the worst health crisis of our time. http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/646745.html

Disasters are great fodder for news shows because they have “live” footage that the networks and cable shows can show over and over again. But with AIDS, we don’t have any “live disaster” footage.  Just long, slow agonizing deaths over months.  We don’t have buildings falling on top of people - we have people buried on top of people instead.  We have parents dying in fear that their orphaned children will be taken as child soldiers or raped or trafficked because of the ruthless among them. We have children who are left to survive and are stigmatized in their communities. I have seen 9 year olds scavenging for food, or allowing themselves to be raped for money to feed their siblings.  This is where hatred of the West breeds.  Where are we when they need us?

Born and raised in London my hero is and was always Sir Bob Geldof.  I will always remember Bob on UK TV begging people to contribute to Africa.  “Just send the f——— money”, he would say exasperated, shocking the anchor.

We are getting some flack from the media because we did not raise a million dollars in a day from our latest campaign.  We never meant to raise a million in one day. It’s impossible unless you are doing a telethon for a huge unexpected disaster like the earthquake in Haiti. But Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, the Kardashians, Usher, Janelle Monae, Jennifer Hudson, Ryan Seacrest and all the rest were with us in the struggle. They ignored the negativity and held fast and true for this everyday disaster for the exact amount of time we suggested at the onset. And even in spite of our herculean efforts to save lives and educate the public about AIDS, people still want to criticize and be negative. And while they lie, people die.

15 million African AIDS orphans will get angry one day if we don’t help or guide them and act to stop them from being pilfered and being raised by extremists. And 15 million AIDS orphans are worth fighting for, don’t you think?

Imagine this is your life.  You know you must walk a mile to the only tap in your village and there is no electricity or food.  People jeer as you walk down the street because you have no detergent to keep your clothes clean and they are filthy and torn. You are discriminated against and stigmatized. No one is caring for you. You have no toys and you have no parents. But your siblings need food, so you beg. Or worse you give your body to someone who will pay so that you can feed your family. You remember your parents and wish they were still here but this disease has wiped all your grown relatives out. You are on your own. You are nine years old. 

Can you honestly say anything we are dealing with in the US of A is worse than this x 15 million?

We don’t think so.

Please visit www.buylife.org to give the gift of life today.

Leigh Blake
President and Co-Founder of Keep a Child Alive

Buy Life - The More You Buy, The More You Save.

Co-founders of Keep a Child Alive (KCA) Leigh Blake and Alicia Keys unveiled KCA’s new innovative fundraising campaign: Buy Life last week at the Black Ball NY 2010. BUY LIFE is a technologically advanced marketing campaign featuring Katie Holmes, Usher, Jay Sean, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest, Alicia Keys, Jaden and Willow Smith, Serena Williams, Swizz Beatz and more in ads wearing t-shirts with unique bar codes. These ads have a new scannable technology built in to each barcode. Using the applications Stickybits or Wimo, smart phone users will be able to scan the barcode from the ad/billboard/online screen with their phone and will be directed to the BUY LIFE micro-site where they can directly donate to KCA.  KCA is the first charity to leverage barcode technology on smartphone devices for philanthropic purposes to engage the public and encourage the purchase of life.

 “With the money raised last night, KCA can now help save even more lives affected by this horrible pandemic,” said Alicia Keys. “With the launch of the BUY LIFE campaign, I’m confident less people will needlessly have to die because of lack of proper healthcare.”

“In a society enamored with the idea of consumption, KCA is asking people to buy life and turn a selfish act into a selfless one,” said Leigh Blake. “This is about changing consumer behavior, repositioning consumerism and the act of buying in the nonprofit environment through social media.”

Keep a Child Alive is so excited to be working with TBWA\Chiat\Day on BUY LIFE. Visit www.buylife.org to see all celebrities involved in the campaign and instructions on how to scan a barcode and buy life with Keep a Child Alive today.

Give and Apologize by Leigh Blake

Africa my motherland why do they do you so?
And yet your faith is strong
Even though you are weary of being hurt for so long
You are resilient
Your light may flicker at times but
Your veins are tied to the beginnings of life
So I say to the world tonight
Give to the Motherland and apologize
Because slavery, colonialism and theft
were your ancestors crimes
Give and apologize
Because with our redemption they can again rise.

—
Leigh Blake
Founder and President
Keep a Child Alive

Journey to South Africa blog

Alicia Keys and the winners of the text alive contest, Talaina, Rachel, Aaron, Sonya and Kristen have blogged about their incredible experience on their journey to Africa! Read about what they felt, the wonderful people they met and transformation in their lives. 

From Chennai to Pune

The next part of our Indian excursion took us from Rajasthan in northern India all the way south to Tamil Nadu. We met with our friends from the American India Foundation once more to visit CHES, an organization they support in Chennai. We found that the CHES Orphanage bears great similarity to the Chandrakal Orphanage that KCA helped construct outside Hyderabad. The modern complex is home to more than 50 HIV+ children. Following our tour of the child care center, we watched the children dance and perform skits they had learned and were excited to share with us. It was valuable for KCA to meet with such a successful orphan care project as we seek to expand our own orphan care work further into India.

The next day we flew to Pune, eager to meet Sahara House - an organization working throughout India to provide HIV/AIDS care and support, as well as drug treatment and shelter for women and children. While in Pune, we met with the lovely Elizabeth Selhore, Executive Director of Sahara House. Together, we visited the care home they run for HIV+ men, women and children, and several beneficiaries of Sahara’s community home based care program.

We began our day by visiting the Sahara care home, a safe haven for HIV+ men, women and children who have been abandoned by their friends and family, and need a temporary place to stay, rehabilitate, and get back on their feet. The short-term stays at the care home have proven difficult for the women and children especially, for whom it takes longer to reintegrate into society. The caretakers told us that often once women become well and return to their homes, they are beaten and turned away, and come back to the care home for further rehabilitation. Sahara wants to build a shelter for HIV+ women and children in Pune, where they can stay long-term, and not only rehabilitate, but learn new skills they may need to support themselves and live their own lives.

After visiting the clients in the care home, we met with the caretakers, many of whom are HIV+ and were once clients of the Sahara program. They explained to us that stigma continues to be debilitating to the progress of HIV/AIDS work in India. One of their most pressing challenges is to acquire proper medical attention and care for their clients at the hospitals, because doctors and nurses look the other way as soon as they learn the patient is HIV+, and the caretakers have to fight for their clients to be seen to and treated well.

Another urgent need that Sahara expressed is funding for nutrition to feed their clients in the care home and the community home based care program. People living with HIV cannot take anti-retroviral medication without proper nutrition, which is why KCA provides nutrition for many of the sites we already support in Africa. The Sahara team took us to meet Anita, who manages the community home based care program in one of Pune’s slums. The Sahara program used to provide daily nutrition to their clients living in these slums, but lack of funding has limited what Sahara can continue to provide to these clients today.

As we walked through the slum, people recognized us as foreigners and surrounded us left and right – to say hello, to get a picture taken, to ask for money. It is absolutely horrific to see the incredibly dire state that human beings allow other people to live. This is poverty. We met one woman, a Sahara beneficiary, who was 20 years old and HIV+. In a small, dark room, no more than 6 feet by 8 feet wide, she lives with her 12 year old brother, who is also HIV+, her own three children, her grandfather, and her alcoholic husband. There is no room for a bed – they all sleep on the floor, and in the morning she can only afford to give the children tea for breakfast.

We met a second family, also a beneficiary of Sahara, who lives in the same size room with her three daughters, her parents and her deceased husband’s parents. There is not enough room for everyone to sleep in the one room, so the grandparents sleep outside on a cart. One of her daughters, age 18, was recently married, but had run away from her husband because he was beating her.

These two stories are a window into the lives of so many poor people living in India today. Sahara House is doing great work to support as many people affected by HIV/AIDS and living in such devastating circumstances, but the need continues to overwhelm the programs, services and resources available. Our hope at Keep a Child Alive is to make it possible for programs like Sahara House to provide the quality HIV care that many more people in India desperately need.

You can help KCA help Sahara House and the people they serve. Give $5. Text “ALIVE” to 90999.

A one-time $5 donation is charged to your wireless bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. Donations collected by the MGF. 4 info call 866-810-1203 or goto hMGF.org/t. Standard rates may apply. Text STOP to 90999 to cancel ; HELP to 90999 for help.