Keep a Child Alive

Alicia Keys: In Women’s Words at the UN

Watch Alicia’s Speech at 1:18:00

Watch the video on the UN Women site here: http://www.unwomen.org/calendar-of-events/?event_id=17#webcast

The women of the world know what to do. And they do it. They would do more if they had equal rights and weren’t discriminated against. That is what we need to fix more than anything in our world. With my organization, Keep a Child Alive, we put the trust directly in the people on the ground, who are extremely capable to run these programs but lack the funding, medicines and health care professionals. If we show to the next generation of men and women affected by the AIDS pandemic that we care by providing the necessary resources of universal treatment that doesn’t end, doctors & nurses, food programs, micro-loan opportunities - this will empower them to live their dreams. And stop the pandemic in its tracks.

We believe that, with AIDS treatment, anything is possible. We watch people become reborn with treatment. And I’ve seen it myself! At our clinic in Uganda, ALIVE Medical Services, a father came in one day, his name is Bashir, unable to walk and on his death bed. He had 7 children at home. Within one month of ARV therapy and food parcels from our ALIVE clinic - Bashir looked like a new man and over the past year, his health has restored to a level where he is actually a father again. With the help of a small loan from us, he opened a boda-boda spare parts shop not far from the main road to Jinja. With funds from the shop, he is now able to send all 7 of his school-aged children to school. That is empowerment. He can care for his family and contribute to his community because he is healthy. Without effective treatment his 7 girl children would have lost their father and their outcome would have been painful at best.

Even in Rwanda, at our Centreville clinic in Kigali - women receive AIDS treatment and surrounding care but they have started the Ineza Cooperative as a source of personal empowerment and economic development. Through education programs in design, sewing, management, computer skills and marketing, these patients learn valuable skills to help support themselves. In addition, English classes are taught to enable the women to better communicate with customers and tourists that come to Ineza to purchase goods. Every product that the Ineza women create is one-of-a-kind, and represents the strength and renewal of female survivors of the 1994 genocide. That is empowerment. They find renewed courage and support to heal their once fragmented lives.

I also think we should empower the care-takers themselves to continue the incredible life-changing work they have fearlessly decided to devote their lives to. My dear Mum Carol Dyanti, who founded and runs Ikageng Itireleng in Johannesburg holds a dear place in my heart. She is a mother to over 1500 children living in child-headed households and provides the basic needs such as food, clothing, transportation, water, electricity, school fees, healthcare and transport. KCA empowers Mum Carol with funding to be able to provide these needs to relieve some of the pressure and despair faced by these young children, who are forced to take on adult roles. This is empowerment, enabling Mum Carol to continue her work to help raise these children all affected by AIDS.

Empowering women and men affected by the AIDS pandemic will come from OUR investment in them. We need to provide the treatment for life, we need to provide it to everyone, and give them opportunity. We need to believe in them and not give up.

In my capacity as Co Founder and Global Ambassador of Keep a Child Alive I call on all Heads of State, Governments and Leaders in the Global North and the Global South to decide:

Will we end AIDS? Will we end the immense pain and suffering that has been wrought upon millions of people in Africa and beyond by saving millions of lives or not? This discussion has been going on for years but now we have very real evidence that we can stop the disease. If we decide yes we can, we must do everything in our power to keep our promises with a very bold plan for universal access. We must commit to $22 billion by 2015 to prevent 12 million infections and save 7 million beautiful lives. 15 million on AIDS treatment by 2015!!! We CAN create the future!!!!

Now that we know that treatment can stop the disease in its tracks we would be literally getting away with murder if we don’t. So I call on the powers that be to:

• Treat to prevent the spread of HIV toward an AIDS free generation.
• Treat to prevent millions more children being orphaned.
• Treat to prevent women and girls from having HIV+ babies.
• And finally treat to prevent children dying of AIDS. This must be our moral imperative.

I note that in the global plan being proposed here today that there are no real bold plans to treat and care for children already infected. Treat children or we will be faced with many problems from kids who were not nurtured and not loved as they grow. Only 18% of children in need are getting treatment. As Graca Michel says “Every Child Counts”. Even if we decide after this UN meeting that we are going for VICTORY, we will still have to care for 16 million plus AIDS orphans. And that must be our focus too.

I call for us to empower people on the ground to win the battle. Empower people on the ground to win. That is the whole ethos at KCA.

I call for us to put women in charge of the issues that affect them. We are agents of change to a more compassionate world.

I call for us to educate men that women’s bodies belong to them. Rape is not allowed, not even if you are married to your rapist.

I call for full gender equality.

I call for a new world that respects the rights of all people including sex workers.

I call for the end of Homophobia. For Gods sake, get over it. People are gay. I call for their human rights.

I call for an end to ideals that put profits and patents ahead of people.

I call for a plan to ensure that condoms are available everywhere. Male and female. I call for every effort possible to ensure microbicides are rolled out to protect women.

I call for an end to TB. By rolling out ARVs and screening for TB we can cut TB infections in half.

I call for progressive language in the final declaration that comes out of the High Level meeting that caters to the world as it is today not medieval concepts we are far beyond. As advances in Science and Technology soar in our world so must advances in Human Rights.

We are all a mothers child. Treat her with respect.

I know we can send men to the moon so I know we can do this. I know we can bail out Wall St in a week so I know we can do this. I know we can stop this disease in its tracks. WE CAN CREATE THE FUTURE!!!

Thank you.

Welcome Nichole Rhodes to our Board of Directors.

As Founder and Manager of The Rhodes Global Group, Nichole has created a dynamic international consultancy focused on understanding, building and promoting competitive identities for nations, multinational companies and NGO’s. Her consulting firm works closely with its clientele to develop strategic business alliances and partnerships, develop and implement strategies for revenue growth and create new business opportunities and competitive identities.

In February 2011, the Rhodes Group was retained by BYD Co. Ltd, in Shenzhen China to lead global business development initiatives in the United States and India.

In December of 2010, Nichole was named the International Spokesperson for Bali Green.  Leading the Indonesian Government’s initiative at the UNEP in Bangkok, Thailand, she successfully unified and initiated efforts to make Bali the first green province in Indonesia.  Subsequently, her efforts for Bali Green have included leading strategy for the Norway-Indonesia REDD partnership and facilitating a public private partnership agreement with multinational BYD Co. Ltd., Shenzhen, China.

In early 2010, Nichole was contacted by President Shimon Peres to serve as advisory on the Israel - South Korea science and technology driven futures for meetings with President Lee in Seoul, June 2010. 

Nichole was recognized at the World Economic Forum as a supporter and ambassador of South African Spirit and Investment by the International Marketing Council of South Africa.

Prior to forming Rhodes Global Group, Nichole was recruited to the position of Vice President of International Marketing & New Business Development for Global Leadership Team. There, she was charged with managing international marketing, strategic communications and business development—as well as key engagements—and generated more than $4 million in new revenue in less than 2 years.

In 2006, Nichole was retained by General Motors as a Consultant specializing in International Marketing. In that role, she developed marketing and communications strategies globally for GM Advanced/Green Technologies partnerships with the Pentagon, the Army, the Marines, the EPA, the Department of Agriculture and the US Senate. Another of her roles was to create and brand broadcast marketing for Tiger Woods and Buick, including scripts and productions for broadcast in the United States and internationally.

Early in her career, Nichole was a Television News Producer and Journalist with the NBC affiliate in Detroit, where she worked as the Senior Political Producer to former White House Correspondent Emery King.  She also oversaw market promotions of shows including “The Apprentice” and “Friends.”

In 2012, Nichole will graduate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts with a Global Master of Arts degree, International Law & Diplomacy.

Remembering Nkosi Johnson

June 1, 2011 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Nkosi Johnson, a young activist and hero in the AIDS movement.

Born HIV positive, Nkosi first made international headlines when he was 8 years old and his foster mother, Gail Johnson, tried to enroll him at a local school.  With no policies in place around the admission of HIV+ children into schools at that time, a battle ensued that brought attention to the huge gaps in services and protections for children living with HIV.  Because of Nkosi, a government policy was enacted two years later, giving all HIV-infected children the right to education in South Africa.

Invited to speak at schools about his status and the policy, Nkosi took a very active role in fighting for acceptance and non-discrimination with his unbending stance on ARV medication for HIV+ pregnant women.  He never wanted another child to end up infected and could not understand why, when there was treatment available, there was a delay in getting the medicine to the people in dire need.  The question of expense was way beyond his comprehension.

In 1997, Nkosi’s birth mother died of AIDS.  Devastated by the fact that his “mommy never said goodbye,” Nkosi asked the question, “Does everyone who has AIDS die?”  Nkosi wanted to prevent other children from suffering the pain he had endured. He wanted to create a place where mothers with HIV/AIDS and their children could live and be cared for without discrimination or prejudice.  In April 1999, the first Nkosi’s Haven opened its doors.

Two years later, Nkosi died.  He never had the chance to see the 95 children at Nkosi’s Haven go to school, or the 35 mothers with HIV all living with their children at Nkosi’s Haven today.

Nkosi Johnson will always be remembered as the boy who gave a face to AIDS in Africa, and who stole our hearts when he spoke at the 13th International AIDS Conference in July 2000.  With all eyes on him, he challenged the then government to roll out ARVs to pregnant women to prevent the virus being passed onto their unborn children, and he asked for acceptance of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Keep a Child Alive is honored to support the women and children of Nkosi’s Haven today, Founder and mother Gail Johnson, and the indomitable spirit of Nkosi Johnson, whose dream lives on through the lives they save.  Help KCA continue to support Nkosi’s Haven work.  Click below to donate now and choose Nkosi’s Haven.

Jay Sean with Keep a Child Alive in South Africa

Recently, pop R&B artist Jay Sean traveled with Keep a Child Alive to South Africa to visit two KCA-funded sites in Durban to meet the children and families we serve. Jay became involved with KCA in 2010 as he participated in our Buy Life and Digital Death campaigns and attended our 2010 Black Ball New York.

From Jay Sean himself, “I was recently blessed with the opportunity to travel to South Africa and visit two of the amazing Keep a Child Alive sites. This was such a life changing experience for me because like many of us, I’ve always been willing to write a cheque, but physically being there and seeing everything in action made me realize how much more I can and need to do!”

Jay Sean and the KCA crew visited Operation Bobbi Bear where he met the superwomen Jackie, Eureka and child safety officers who work everyday to protect children from sexual abuse and who rescue child victims of sexual abuse and rape to minimize their risk of HIV-infection at point of rescue, ensuring their health and well-being in places of safety and bringing their perpetrators to justice. To read more about Operation Bobbi Bear, click here.

Jay and his team were then welcomed by the staff at the Blue Roof Wellness Center with hugs, hugs and more hugs. It is so amazing to see the eyes of patients, children and staff when a pop star walks in just light up and their faces fill with joy and smiles. Jay sat down with 2 of our patients at the Blue Roof  to hear their stories and reactions to be HIV positive and how their lives have been changed since coming to the Blue Roof and being able to access free ARV treatment. It’s beautiful to hear the stories directly from the patients and how thankful they are to all staff of the Blue Roof and KCA.

To see a video of highlights from Jay Sean’s trip to South Africa, click here.

To Buy Life with Jay Sean and Keep a Child Alive, text ‘BUYLIFE’ to 90999 to give $10 today. $10 will buy the essential HIV/AIDS care necessary to keep a child or adult with HIV/AIDS alive for one week.

There is nothing like a Dame - especially this one. Elizabeth Taylor, AIDS Warrior dead at 79.

Elizabeth Taylor was considered one of Hollywood’s greatest actresses but to us at Keep a Child Alive, she was one of the greatest AIDS warriors. In the early 80s as the unknown virus began to spread, there was much stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS but Elizabeth Taylor was not shy of controversy and spoke out against the fear associated with the disease after her friend Rock Hudson died of it alone in Paris, a handsome man faded to a skeleton.

Galvanized Elizabeth Taylor then founded AmFar, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and was a great supporter of my then charity, the Red Hot Organization as it steered its first benefit, Red Hot + Blue through the quagmire of ignorance, prejudice and stigma. In return and because major funds for research was so desperately needed to find drugs to prevent the unstoppable number of deaths I was able to direct $1 million dollars to AmFar as its first grant.

Elizabeth hosted an event in Los Angeles, sponsored by Entertainment Weekly to celebrate our work, which was of course full of lush diamonds and many many laughs.  She was a rollicking good time.  Natural, normal and very very funny.  I was invited to her 65th birthday party at Disneyland and rubbed shoulders with Richard Gere, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Dennis Hopper and many more great people who supported her work with AIDS.  She was indeed a voice for gay men and like Madonna you could mistake her for one via her vernacular. 

In 1991, Elizabeth Taylor founded the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) to raise funds and awareness for those living with HIV/AIDS with a focus on direct care and prevention education on the pandemic. She covered all underwriting costs for raising and administering funds, allowing for 100% of the public’s donations to be directly served to those living with HIV/AIDS under the Foundation’s care. Over the past 20 years, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation has raised and provided $12 million in grants to various AIDS organizations worldwide.

On March 23rd 2011, we lost this AIDS warrior woman who fought for so long in the battle against AIDS: against stigma, against fear, against discrimination and to provide love and support to all. She will be dearly missed but always remembered. 

This was one sassy Dame and I salute her. 

Leigh Blake
Co-Founder & President
Keep a Child Alive

Pop R&B Star Jay Sean Donates His Birthday

On Saturday, March 26th, Jay Sean is celebrating his birthday and this year, his wish is for his fans, friends and family to donate to Keep a Child Alive to give life to those affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. As you may remember, Jay Sean became involved with KCA in 2010 and participated in our Buy Life and Digital Death campaigns. He just recently returned from a trip to South Africa where he visited our Blue Roof Wellness Center and Operation Bobbi Bear meeting HIV-positive patients and children orphaned by AIDS.

Please help to make Jay’s birthday wish come true and give him the greatest gift of all by donating to Keep a Child Alive. To see video highlights from our trip to South Africa with Jay and read his birthday wish, click here: www.keepachildalive.org/jaysean

Introducing Keep a Child Alive’s eBay Store!

Looking for a past Keep a Child Alive t-shirt or tote bag that we no longer sell in our online store?  Check out Keep a Child Alive’s new eBay store!  We have t-shirts, tote bags, watches and more incredible items…all at a lower price from original sale!  Show your support for Keep a Child Alive by purchasing one of our great items to Buy Life for those we support affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. Also, don’t forget to browse our newest BUY LIFE items in the KCA web-store too! Look through our items today at: www.stores.ebay.com/keep-a-child-alive-store

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