Ebenezer Foundation
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Ebenezer Charities Inc., a nonprofit organization, is committed to assist in decreasing the suffering of people living with HIV/AIDS and to support their families and organizations devoted to the services of orphaned children and their caretakers.

Hope and Survival: HIV/AIDS in Africa

By the time he was five, James (not real name), had lost both parents to AIDS, first his father when he was a little over three and then his mother. When he was found by Meeting Point, Inc (an NGO in Kampala, Uganda), he was staying at home with his dead mother all by himself. Now 12 years old, he depends entirely on Meeting Point for his survival and all his needs.

HIV/A1DS is a silent scourge, an epidemic of gigantic proportions that is wreaking untold havoc and slowly, but surely eroding the fabric of the African family, for eons the stabilizing force on the continent. Though frightening, the statistics do not fully describe the enormous suffering visited upon millions of African families.

Consider the following:

28 million people in Africa, south of the Sahara are living with HIV/AIDS

Highest rates: Botswana (35%), Swaziland, Zimbabwe (25%). Lesotho (24%), Zambia, South Africa (20%).

About 11 million orphaned children now; by 2020 estimated to rise to 40 million

6,000 Africans die of AIDS daily

By 2010, life expectancy may drop to 48 years or less in most of Africa.

The Result: dire consequences for the continent

Breakdown of community and family systems:

Children:
  • Unable to attend school because they have to care for ill parents
  • Become breadwinners for the household
  • Often times live on the streets
  • Become vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse

Grandparents:
  • Become caregivers to grandchildren
  • Lose financial support of their children

Economic issues:
  • "AIDS kills those on whom the society relies to grow crops, work in the mines and factories, run the schools and hospitals and govern countries. It creates new pockets of poverty" -Nelson Mandela

How You Can Help!
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