| Please join the VISION in making a difference in the life of a child! |
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As HIV/AIDS continues to devastate Africa, “the orphan crisis is a crisis without parallel.” Although, we typically define orphans as children whose parents have died, many children suffer the same neglect while their parents are living with HIV/AIDS – taking on household responsibilities, caring for younger siblings, and dropping out of school to earn whatever money possible for the family. Today, there is a generation of child-headed households, where there are no grandparents or other family members for support after parents die, leaving children raising younger siblings. “These lonely youngsters are bewildered, angry, sad, frantically seeking nurture and affection, often hungry, homeless…”
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There is an estimated 133 million orphans in the world, 15 million due to AIDS.
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46 million of those orphans live in sub-Sahara African, of who 12 million were orphaned by AIDS.
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20% of Zambian children are orphans.
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Estimates state 600,000 orphans live in Zambia due to AIDS, but those numbers are arguably low since 2 out of 3 children under the age of five are not registered at birth.
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Mother-to-Child Transmission rate of HIV is about 15-30%, if the mother does not breastfeed. With prolonged breastfeeding, the rate jumps as high as 45%.
"In the past there was always an adult around to do the work - to plant seeds and plough the fields. Now, with one in four adults in the region HIV-positive, many people are too sick to work, or have already died, and it is the children, some as young as eight or nine, who are left to cope alone.” – UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Roger Moore in Zambia.
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Meet Moses. He attends AVOH School in Kabulonga. He is one of nine children who have lost both parents to HIV/AIDS. The are struggling as they try to run a child-headed household.
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| No matter how bad things are in the United States, we have somewhere to turn...some sort of government aid or program to help. We have food assistance programs, food pantries, and soup kitchens, unemployment, aid for dependent children, social security, disability, and shelters just to name a few. In Zambia, they have none of these luxuries. If you are unemployed, disabled, orphaned, or homeless, there is no government assistance to help you put food on your table, a roof over your head, or clothes on your back. In the U.S., in our darkest moments, there is somewhere to turn for help. The same opportunities do not exist in Zambia. If you are an orphan, it can be even worse - you are on your own - with no one to provide for you, tuck you in at night, give you a hug everyday, look after your well-being, and you feel hopeless.
You can be a part of the VISION to provide HOPE to the hopeless...to end the cycle of devastation and despair!
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With your monthly pledge of only $30, you will be sponsoring a child like Moses (shown above). After you submit your request to sponsor a child, you will receive in the mail your child’s photo, along specific information about your sponsored child. We will also provide you several opportunities throughout the year for you to correspond and provide something special for your child.
- We encourage you to send your sponsored child a personal or family photograph and a short letter of introduction. When you write, your sponsored child will benefit from knowing that someone around the world really cares for them! Your words of encouragement and prayers bring more joy than you can imagine and profoundly affect these children.
- Your $30 monthly pledge – only $1 a day – helps cover the cost of education, books, meals, and medical care for your child.
Click here to Sponsor a Child Now!
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