Our Work

Helping Hands takes on AIDS in Uganda

The Deadly Facts

AIDS is a cruel disease affecting children as individuals, family and community members. It is a disease which both orphans children and is cruelly passed on to them as babies in their HIV+ mother’s womb. In Uganda the situation is extremely bad:

• Around 1.2 million children are orphaned due to AIDS and have to be raised by elderly relatives.
• 130,000 children are infected themselves, mainly from birth.
• Only a third of young people understand the disease and how to avoid it.

The Reality in Every Family

Almost one child in ten loses a parent from AIDS and in the process takes on the responsibilities of caring for the sick as well as running a home. Everyone knows someone who has died from AIDS. Around one child in every hundred suffers from the disease himself and the horrendous reality is that when resources are limited feeding a dying child can be seen as a waste.

The Way Forward

Helping Hands has taken a three-pronged approach to take on AIDS:

• sex education for older children
• assistance for families to get vulnerable children tested
• assistance for HIV+ children to get continuous access to drugs

A gift of £40 will ensure, for one year, a child's monthly visits to a specialist clinic for blood tests and appropriate dosage of antiretroviral drugs to ensure that they can live a full life. See Giving to children in Uganda.

See also Helping Hands fights Malaria in Kamuli, Jinja, Mukono in Uganda.