On The Frontlines Of The Battle Against AIDS In Africa

Annie Elble with some of the students at New Hope Primary School.

According to The World Factbook, nearly 27 percent of adults in Swaziland are dealing with HIV/AIDS. In this small country, that leaves approximately 120,000 children orphaned and vulnerable.

Back in 2008 officials at Purdue University wanted to seek ways that students could make a positive contribution in the face of all of these challenges. So, they sent a team of students to scout where the help was needed in order to develop service learning projects and internships.

Annie Elble, a graduate student in the Public Health Program made the trip with two other students. They visited clinics, hospitals, schools, orphanages, and homes where children were heads of households and other households where those with AIDS were receiving hospice care. The visit was so life-changing for Annie that she and Kait Mariutto founded GIVE HOPE, FIGHT POVERTY, a charitable organization that helps to develop service learning projects to help orphaned and vulnerable children to be educated and empowered in order to lift them out of situations of dire poverty. It brings resources and professional expertise to help raise children, especially those who lack adult involvement.



One of their main projects has been developing the New Hope Primary School in Malindza Village, in a rural area of Swaziland, where children, who are AIDS orphans, would otherwise not have access to education. That school now has grades 1,2, and 3, serving about 60 children. Some other programs include a FEEDOM feeding program that provides lunch to 1259 children, gardens containing fruit-bearing trees for child-headed households, scholarships to 24 children from child-headed households for primary and secondary education, equipment for eLangeni Primary School. There are now so many programs that there are too many to list here.

If you want to participate, the website has a list of upcoming trips, along with the number of openings available. But you don't have to participate in one of those service learning trips. The organization provides speakers to explain what they do, giving information so that your church, school, or community can decide how they want to help. The group also will provide help with organizing a "Paint For A Purpose" event in which participants can paint a mural for a classroom in Swaziland (a good idea for a school-based service learning project). And there is also a list of needs, so your organization or company can collect needed items and send them to Give Hope, Fight Poverty. This is a program that invites participation and the children receiving help can know that the rest of the world cares about them.

Thanks to information from this article from Life 360: http://www.purdue.edu/hhs/life360/fall2013/10-days-in-swaziland.html, this article from Pollination Project: http://www.ifightpoverty.org/, and the above links.

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