Welcome

Welcome to Keep a Child Alive's official news feed from the front lines. Here you will find moving testimonials from our clinics, as well as empowering stories of triumph from people like you, working to raise money and awareness to combat the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Meet Noah

Meet Noah. He is 15 years old and HIV positive. Noah lives in Rwanda and raps in his community to educate people about HIV prevention. He is a patient at the Icyuzuzo Clinic in Kigali, funded by Keep a Child Alive.


Click here to meet Noah.

Anti-retroviral medication has made it possible for Noah to be alive today. Help keep Noah and children like him alive.

Vote for Keep a Child Alive to win $2.5 million from the American Express Members Project.

If you do not have an AMEX card, you MUST vote by Monday, September 1st!

Voting only takes a minute - so CLICK HERE to NOMINATE NOW!

Once you have Voted, email or call at least 5 friends and make sure they Vote too! Help us start a virus to end a virus and share this video with everyone you know!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

KCA College on Youtube!

Keep a Child Alive is thrilled to start posting video content by our dedicated Keep a Child Alive College Chapter Leaders! Chapter Leaders have raised over $40,000 on campuses nationwide for Keep a Child Alive, and a new series of "How To" videos will instruct and inspire fellow and future Chapter Leaders to do the same!

Check out Jennifer Salazar of University of Oklahoma!


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Nominate Keep a Child Alive for $2.5 million!

Dear friends of Keep a Child Alive,

Please nominate Keep a Child Alive for the American Express Members Project award!
Your vote online now will help us become one of the Top 25 nominated projects to win $2.5 million in funding. Voting takes one minute and you do not have to be an Amex card member to vote.
How to Vote:

1. Log on to:
www.membersproject.com/project/view/23E7H1
2. Click "Nominate This Project." - If you are an AMEX Card Member, click "Log-in"
- If you are not an AMEX Card Member, click "Guest Member Sign-Up"
3. Click "Nominate" to vote for "Keep a child with AIDS alive for just $1 a day."
4. Forward this information to EVERYONE you know, and spread the word via text, blog, website, Facebook, Myspace and YouTube!

Thank you for using your voice to support the work of Keep a Child Alive!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Bomu Medical Centre

The KCA team recently visited the Bomu Medical Centre, based on the outskirts of Mombasa, Kenya. Mombasa is a small town on the East African seaboard, which operates largely as a trading center for much of the African continent.

Bomu Medical Centre is putting life back into communities that have been devastated by the AIDS pandemic. Bomu specializes in providing treatment and surrounding care to the poor affected and infected with HIV. When Keep A Child Alive started funding Bomu, they were treating 157 patients on ARV’s. Today, the hospital receives more than 250 new patients every month and currently has 1500 children on treatment. In the last two years, Bomu has treated 10,000 patients for HIV infection!

Click here to see Bomu’s warm welcome to our KCA team’s arrival:

These highly energized women are patients of ours that first came to Bomu on the brink of death. Since they began receiving treatment, they have become positive role models in their community, working to help change the face of AIDS.

All of these women are valuable players in Bomu’s new community outreach program that gets people talking about AIDS in an effort to break down the stigma that surrounds the disease. They are also working with the HIV-positive children in their community to ensure that they continue to receive the medication they need on a regular basis.

Sakia Mohamed is a Community Health Worker at Bomu. Click here to hear more from Sakia:

01:03:04 Most of the clients that we have, they are below poverty level. And they live in a slum, at the average of 36,000 people. And they are really poor. They cannot take their medicine on an empty stomach. So, what we do, sometimes we assist them or we help them. We take their cards, get the medicine for them, and give it to them. But you cannot do that all the time. Because they cannot get transport, or they cannot afford even half a dollar in a day. And most of them are mothers, with kids. Some mothers have 3-4 kids who are positive. 01:06:22 That's why you find, most of the people will not come forward to be tested. They are scared. And that is stigma and discrimination. And some of them have accepted that they are HIV positive, but there is discrimination and stigma. 01:06:50 And HIV does not kill, stigma kills. Because nobody will take care of you, nobody will protect you, will talk to you. You will always eat by yourself. You will always sit at the corner on your own. You don't have anybody to talk to. Nobody is there, nobody is interested. So this is why, most of the African community, this is what is happening in between them. 01:14:02 Bomu is a beautiful clinic. Bomu is doing a lot. Bomu is helping a lot of people. Bomu is helping a lot of men, women, just name it! Bomu is doing a lot with Keep a Child Alive. So, whoever is there, please assist Keep a Child Alive. Please, please, I beg you.

Bomu continues to expand to address the growing need for treatment in its community. Dr. Zahir Alavi is the Medical Director at Bomu. According to Dr. Alavi, the HIV prevalence rate in the area has risen from 5.9% to 8% within the last year. The hospital is currently undergoing construction to accommodate more patients.

Click here to hear more from Dr. Alavi:

19:30 So it began as a very small project, but over time, because of the scale of the problem, it's really really blossomed into a full institution that now provides outpatient facilities to those infected. And especially from the slum areas – as you may see when you go around Bomu – surrounded by a lot of slums, and all the poor that live here, have absolutely no other way of getting assistance towards their treatment of the HIV infection. Even though the government and institutions are there, and they have programs that are providing these services, they're just overwhelmed. There are not enough institutions, there are not enough doctors, there are not enough health care providers, and there are not enough drugs. 23:50 We just have to get up more clinics, we just have to get in more labs, and more support facilities so that these patients can get the right care, can get the right access, and can get all the drugs and all the tests that are required with keeping these people on this kind of care. This is the way we are, this is the help we need.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Pan African Student Organization of UC DAVIS


The incredible students of the Pan African Student Organization at UC DAVIS organized a seated benefit dinner with proceeds to benefit Keep a Child Alive. It was an intimate night of poetry, music, dance & fashion. The students sold tickets to the African inspired fashion show for $10 each and added a auction & raffle as another fundraising component. We applaud raising an incredible $2,000 for KCA's work!

You can see a clip from their evening show at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1V8bWnc5Tc&feature=related