THE SITUATION
Did you know that 36.7 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS? Of those, 1.8 million children worldwide are affected. Most of these children were affected by their HIV positive mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. HIV, which is the virus that causes AIDS, is one of the world's most serious health and development challenges. The majority of people living with HIV are in developing countries residing in the Sub Saharan African Region. One of the countries that has the highest rates of HIV/AIDS is Zimbabwe. Despite numerous HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, more than one million people are affected with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe. In 2009, statistics were reported that as many as 1.2 million were living with HIV/AIDS and about 83,000 of those died from this disease within that same year. The adult prevalence rate in Zimbabwe is 14.3%.
The volunteer programs we offer will provide you with an opportunity to work with children that are affected by HIV and AIDS. A lot of the children you will be working with are HIV positive and contracted the virus at birth from their parents. Some of the children are orphans and lost their parents to HIV and AIDS. Some children have been given a fighting chance and have been provided with anti-viral drugs, which require nutritious meals every day in order for these drugs to work; otherwise they can become a toxin to the body. As a volunteer on our programs, one of the ways you can get involved is to join efforts with local teams and assist with providing nutritious meals to the children and provide counselling for them where you feel it is necessary. The influence you have with the local community will make a significant impact and provide a life changing experience.