the wonderful kids

i have been anxiously waiting to write this post for months now!

it is my huge pleasure to introduce to you all, the wonderful kids with etfl! for the past while, i have been working with a team of incredible volunteers to bring in this new group of liberian children into the etfl family.

http://eattofeedliberians.com/wonderful_kids.html

they are a group of kids affected and infected by hiv/aids. since 2007, two very good liberian friends have been working to support these children through micro businesses and spare change. these kids lacked the necessary nutritional, medical and emotional support needed for children living in the shadow of a difficult illness that is heavily stigmatized in buduburam. they worked their hardest to provide for them but at times, the resources just simply are not there.

this year, etfl realized that they were in a spot where they could commit to these kids and women with financial support. a few volunteers headed over this summer to help develop this program and a lot of stress and hard work later, we're off! it is exciting, challenging, nerve wracking and bitter sweet.

when starting this program, we had hoped to be able to put the hiv+ kids on ARVs. we thought there were only a couple of them and that we would be able to match them with locals who could ensure adherence and internationals who could provide financial support. it is so so so so so important that once kids get on arvs, they do not stop. if they stop, the medications are not only ineffective but the kids can build up a resistance to them.

mid summer, i got a phone call from one of the volunteers in camp letting me know that they had finished testing the kids and that the majority of them were positive. it was too many kids to be able to manage. while we could probably get the financial support, administration and supervision is so far beyond our capacity and the capacities of the women in ghana who care for them. with a group that has such a flexible future, putting the kids on medications without knowing where they will be in a few months, how serious their parents are and so many other things could make it worse more than better.

i struggled with this decision, but not nearly as much as the volunteers in ghana did... and probably still are. i wish i could be in so many places at once.

at the end of the day though, i think we have made the responsible choice. it is so important not to overstretch yourself in this situation, and to promise only what you know you can deliver. we will now devote so much time to finding organizations who have the capacities and resources that we do not, to hopefully care for as many of these kids as possible.

i hate that this job has me make these decisions between impossible A and impossible B. i mean, i love it, but howwww is that a discussion that even has to happen. it makes me particularly sick that i had to think about that decision while sitting in cottage country with friends and beer, a trip to central america on the horizon and - relatively speaking - all the opportunity in the world.

ARG.