Impacting the Larger Community
The devastating effects of HIV/AIDS on individuals and families are compounded by the repercussions of widespread poverty. The lack of food, clean water and access to health care makes living with HIV/AIDS even more difficult for large portions of the community. Tree of Lives is a lifeline to some of Kenya’s most desperate people.
Food Distribution
The extreme poverty of the typical Nazareth Hospital patient means that nutritional as well as medical needs must be met. Nazareth treats its HIV-positive patients with antiretroviral drugs. These drugs control the HIV virus, enabling patients to regain full strength and lead a normal life. In order for these drugs to be effective, the patient must have enough to eat. Otherwise, the patient’s system cannot tolerate the drugs. Extreme poverty makes obtaining sufficient food very difficult for many of Nazareth’s HIV outpatients, most of whom are single mothers whose husband has either deserted the family or died of AIDS. When patients cannot afford to feed themselves or their children, antiretroviral drugs distributed to these individuals have little effect and can even affect the patient negatively.
Nazareth recognized this dilemma several years ago after antiretroviral drugs were introduced. To solve this problem it began distributing along with the drugs packages of food consisting of enough porridge, rice and black beans to feed the patient for one week. These packages were distributed weekly. However, the health care workers at Nazareth soon discovered that many of the patients were not eating the food themselves; they were using it to feed their children. Nazareth realized that in order for the food packages to serve their purpose, enough food would have to be distributed to feed not only the patient, but also the patient’s children. The food packages were enlarged, so that they would feed the patient and his or her entire family for a week. The packages are not expensive by American standards. Sixty dollars will feed a family of four for one month.
Tree of Lives currently provides food packages (typically, flour, rice and beans) to more than 600 patients weekly, 90 percent of whom are women and children. Food packages are distributed through various local community offices, where patients can receive food without having to pay for transportation to Nazareth.
Clean Drinking Water - Living Waters Program
Statistics reveal that more than 50 percent of the rural population of Kenya and more than 25 percent of the urban population have no access to clean drinking water. Diseases such as typhoid, dysentery and cholera are constant threats to these people. The Tree of Lives Living Waters program has installed two water purification systems on the Nazareth Hospital compound and two additional wells in nearby communities. In 2010-11, another well system was installed in the slum of Korogocho, where more than 160,000 poverty-stricken residents live in a one-square-kilometer area. Financial support also helps to underwrite the cost of training individuals to install and maintain the systems.
Gifts of Food and Clothing - African Boxes of Love
The African Boxes of Love project began as a holiday tradition at First Presbyterian Church of Norfolk, Virginia. Each year, a lighted Christmas tree is placed in the Commons area of the Church and covered with brightly colored ornaments bearing individual pictures of children in Kenya. Each child is either a student at the school on the grounds of Nazareth Hospital or an HIV patient at the Holy Family Centre. The children range in age from pre-school to 14 years old. These children have been affected by the AIDS epidemic, either through the death of one or both parents or by suffering with the disease themselves. Their sweet faces shine from the tree, bringing a deeper meaning to the celebration of Christmas at FPC.
The ornaments are for sale for $60 each. We are amazed at how much 60 U.S. dollars can buy. Each child receives a pair of shoes and socks, a sweatshirt, a blanket, a backpack, a dozen ruled notebooks, a lunch box and toys. They also receive for their families, four bars of soap, 2 kg of rice, 2 kg of wheat flower, 2 kg of maize flower, 3 kg of black beans and 4 kg of cooking fat. This food pack can feed a family of four for one month.
Many FPC families buy an ornament for each family member as their gift to Jesus. FPC children flock around the tree to choose a special friend. These ornaments are taken home and hung on family trees to remember the face of the child they have gifted. After Christmas many keep these ornaments in their devotionals and Bibles to remember to pray all year long for “their child.” The only problems with this project are the traffic jams around the tree and the swift depletion of the ornaments. It’s not unusual for all of the ornaments to be claimed before all the Sunday services of the Christmas season are over. They are restocked several times during Advent.
The tangible gifts sent to these children brighten their lives, give them dignity and bless the lives of their whole family. However, the greatest gift our $60 gives these worthy children is the expression of their Savior’s love for them. It teaches them about the universal Body of Christ and the truth that we are all brothers and sisters. Our prayer is that each box will not only meet a physical need, but will also fuel the hope that God instills in the hearts of all His children.
