AHOPE FOR CHILDREN

<p>AHOPE Ethiopia provides two children&#8217;s homes exclusively for the care of children infected with HIV, with a capacity of about 100 children total. Both homes are clean, cheerful and have areas for outdoor play within their walled compounds. There is a high ratio of staff to children to ensure individualized attention. There is a pediatrician on staff working approximately half time and full time trained nurses. There are also certified teachers, social workers/counselors and well trained, supervised child care workers as well as staff for cleaning, cooking, driving, maintenance and guarding the compounds. (The guards are for the safety of the staff and children as well as the stored medications and foods—they are a fact of life in Ethiopia and are commonly hired by middle class families to ensure household security.)</p> <p>Children of kindergarten age attend Worldwide Orphans Academy. The older children attend several local public schools. By spreading them out, their status as orphans and, especially, as HIV infected orphans, is minimized among the school population.</p>

<div> <p >AHOPE will continue to house, nourish, care for and provide medical needs to&nbsp;thousands of HIV+ children in the distant future. </p> </div>

AHOPE looks to expand its current capacity to be able to house over 200 children in a new facility.

AHOPE for Children and AHOPE Ethiopia

Since 2002 AHOPE Ethiopia has gone from hospice to a facility that has adopted close to 90 HIV+ children into the U.S.A.&nbsp;

<p >The Child Development Center is a community outreach program that provides services essential to enable a destitute extended family to keep its orphaned children at home. The first Child Development Center was opened in September of 2007 in an impoverished neighborhood of Addis Ababa. It has the capacity to assist 100 children and their guardians and is designed as a model that is suitable for replication in other needy areas as funding allows. The children are provided with all the essentials to thrive despite the family circumstances, including food, clothing, psycho-social support, and schooling. There is an in-house preschool and the older children are provided with school fees, uniforms, books, etc. Medical care is provided, including anti-retro-viral therapy as needed. The guardians of the children receive family training in nutrition, hygiene, care of HIV infected persons and other skills that contribute to a healthy environment for the children and their families. Full-day day care is provided with many age-appropriate activities and a before-school and after-school program of tutoring and activities for the older children. <br /> <br /> The Child Development Center houses a fledgling Community Children's Library to enable the children of AHOPE to socialize with other children and adults in the community in a natural social setting. The goals are both to provide library services to the neighborhood, but also to provide a way to decrease stigma and discrimination against the HIV children. <br /> <br /> There is ongoing training for families and the community to provide sensitization to HIV issues, community cohesiveness and mobilization. This first Center is truly a place where the entire community can find hope for the future.</p>

<div>As a model for the entire continent of Africa, our steps in Ethiopia will become trodden paths throughout the continent.</div> <div>Our future intent is to serve hundreds of thousands HIV+ children so that they may have the opportunity to stay in their country and culture.</div>

We look to open 3 more identical centers in Addis Ababa.

AHOPE for Children and AHOPE Ethiopia

We are already serving over 100 children since the inception of the program in 2007.