Here are some alarming AIDS facts:

• 3.1 million people lost their lives in 2005, 2.4 million of those were from Sub-Saharan Africa.
• 4.9 million people were newly infected with HIV 2005, 3.2 million of those reside in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• 40.3 million people around the world are living with AIDS/HIV in 2005, two thirds of these people, or 25.8 million, live in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Approximately 11 of every 1,000 adults (ages 15 to 49) are HIV infected.  In Sub-Saharan Africa approximately 72 of every 1,000 adults are infected.
• 25 million children will be orphans by 2010 because of AIDS. Already more than 12 million children have been orphaned by Aids.
• Over 27 million people have died since the first AIDS case was identified in 1980.

More than 2.1 million Kenyans are currently estimated to be infected with HIV, and 100,000 of these are children under 15 years.  Another 230,000 Kenyans are estimated to have acquired full-blown AIDS to date. The impact of such trends in HIV/AIDS infection rates is most significantly manifested in the loss of young adults between 20 and 40 years, and the consequent increase in the numbers of children who are orphaned.
     

With the relentless toll of AIDS reducing the ability of families and communities to care for these children, Kenya is faced with troubling scenarios; grandmothers struggling to care for children, households headed by children, and children with nowhere to turn.   Every tenet of the Convention on the Rights of the child is violated, from their right to education, health and development, to protection from exploitation and harm.

HIV orphaned children go through mental distress that begins with the illness of the parent, and continues with caring for dying parents, living in households stressed by the drain on resources with the accompanying stigmatization of AIDS, and eventual death of the parent/parents.  In Kenya as in most parts of Sub-Sahara Africa, where effective relief from pain is often unavailable, children who live through their parent’s pain and illness frequently suffer from depression, stress and anxiety. 
     
Many orphans suffer quietly from lingering emotional distress, and many lose everything that once offered them security and hope for the future.  The distress and social isolation experienced by children both before and after the eventual death of their parents are strongly exacerbated by the shame, fear and rejection that often surrounds those affected by HIV/AIDS.
     
These children also run greater risks of being malnourished and stunted than children who have capable parents who provide adequate diet. Shelter is also an acute problem.  A number of these children are homeless.  Guardians who may be sick with HIV themselves or are aging grandparents often cannot manage to keep their homes in good repair. For orphaned children in the rural areas, shelter is in some cases a makeshift hut constructed for cultural purposes (such as for placing corpses before burial). 
     
A sad part of the already grotesque picture is that, education for the majority of these children will remain inaccessible, and many will be denied opportunities for education. Withdrawing children from school to pay mounting hospital costs and funeral costs, is one of the first coping measures when a family member dies.
     
In addition, due to the stigma and irrational fear that often surrounds those affected by HIV/AIDS, children orphaned by AIDS may be the first to be denied education when extended families cannot afford to educate all the children of a household.
     
To raise money for school and for other needs, teenage girls sometimes pretend that they are older so that they can have relations with adult men, an activity that puts them at further risk for infection and for secondary infection of HIV if they are already HIV+. Choices for the boy child have not been pleasant either.

For all the above reasons, Hekima Place will then, try to mediate for SOME of the girl children thus afflicted, by offering a loving home, a nutritional diet, and a chance for excellence in education.  The end effect of this intervention may mean great things for the girl child herself, but will also, have a meritorious effect on the community in which she lives and the country as a whole.