AIDS orphans start new life in Kenyan home

??NAIROBI, Sept. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- With bright sunlight coming in through the windows and birds singing outside, a group of babies got up after a nap and began drinking juice, just like they did everyday.

??A few moments later, accompanied by some volunteers, most of the babies went out to play in the courtyard, dotted with lawns and various tropical flowers on a September afternoon.

??Enjoying the sight of the little boys and girls giggling and running around, one can hardly imagine this is an orphanage in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, which is focusing on taking care of HIV/AIDS orphans.

??"We don't call it orphanage. We call it New Life Home because we want the children to feel that they live at home," said Ann Wambugu, office director of New Life Home Kilimani.

??New Life Home Kilimani, located in Kilimani district of Nairobi,currently accommodates more than 50 orphans, including six HIV/AIDS orphans.

??Besides taking care of the babies' daily life, the home also provide medical services to them, especially to those HIV positiveones.

??It gives antiretroviral drugs, proven to be one of the effective drugs to help curb the HIV/AIDS pandemic, to the HIV positive babies, though it takes some 100 US dollars for each babyevery month.

??Abandonment of babies is steadily increasing in Kenya. Hospitals around the country are facing the problem as mothers walk out of the wards and do not return, leaving their newborns tofight for survival alone.

??The crisis of AIDS babies is even greater, because many families are not accepting the sick children, who are often left to die of malnutrition and infection.

??"It is our view that hospitals should not become the home for babies that are HIV positive," Wambugu said.

??Hence the first New Life Home was established in Nairobi in June 1994 by the New Life Home Trust, as a response to the rising tide of orphaned, abandoned and HIV positive babies in the country.

??The nonprofit home admits babies between birth and six months who are orphaned, with a priority given to those who are HIV positive.

??Little by little, the property of the Kilimani home has now been extended to include a playroom, a medicinal center, toddler unit, offices and residential block.

??"I like here very much," Duncan, a three-year-old boy, said while riding a children's bike in the yard.

??If these babies were not adopted by the home, some of them might have died or at least were wandering about along streets, Wambugu said.

??Wambugu declined to identify the HIV positive babies.

??"We can't tell you. It has something to do with privacy," she said. "These babies will grow up someday, and they have the right to live with dignity in society. That's the reason why we have theAIDS orphans live together with other babies."

??After continuing efforts and with the help of the donors over the past nine years, the trust has opened two more new homes in Kenya, with one in Kisumu in the country's Western province, and the other in Lamu in Coast province, and some 500 babies have beenadmitted in the three homes altogether.

??"Of the 170 born HIV positive babies we have been adopting, almost 90 percent have become HIV negative," said Sharon Higgins, administrator of the trust.

??The achievement, according to some medical experts, has made the New Life Homes unique throughout the world.

??The infants are discharged to families for foster care and adoption at the appropriate time by the homes. To date, over 80 percent of the 488 babies admitted to the homes have been adopted.

??However, not all orphans in Kenya and in Africa as a whole, especially the HIV positive ones, have the chance to be cared in New Life Homes.

??HIV/AIDS has been a major social problem puzzling the east African country. Since the first AIDS case was found in the country in 1984, some 1.1 million Kenyans have died of the killer disease and at least 2.6 million others are infected with HIV, including the 1.2 million HIV/AIDS orphans.

??Kenya is not the only country under the scourge in Africa.

??Although it only has 10 percent of the world's population, the region accounts for about 30 million or 70 percent of the 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

??According to World Health Organization figures, at least 3.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa are children under the age of 15.

??More alarming statistics even indicate that by the year 2010, there will be 40 million AIDS orphans in Africa.

??Fortunately, concern has been raised by more and more people worldwide.

??"If we do not work with the Africans themselves to address these problems, we will have to deal with them later when they will get more dangerous and more expensive," a foreign AIDS expertsaid. Enditem