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Africare News Release |
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Emile (right) and his younger sister (left) suffer doubly from the AIDS crisis: they have been orphaned due to AIDS, and they are infected with HIV. Africare supports a home-based care provider to help these children stay healthy. (Africare photo) |
Africare Works to Bring Improved Health and Reconciliation to the People of Rwanda
In April 1994, genocide swept the nation of Rwanda. Africare had begun work 12 years prior to this period, developing communities and lending aid to refugees. And Africare remained in Rwanda after the conflict subsided, providing emergency health care and food to the victims of civil unrest.
Today, Rwanda's transition from crisis to recovery and development is incomplete. The nation still faces tough challenges posed by large numbers of vulnerable people such as widows, orphans, refugees, and people returning after fleeing to neighboring countries. Vulnerability has been exacerbated by the effects of HIV/AIDS, which has infected an estimated 11% of the general population, among the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world.
Currently, Africare's program in Rwanda focuses on the AIDS epidemic, with projects in HIV prevention for youth, home-based care for people living with AIDS, youth vocational training, and microenterprise development. While the primary focus of these projects is HIV/AIDS, a secondary benefit is the encouragement of reconciliation among the Rwandan people.
In the Gikongoro province of Rwanda, Africare runs a youth center and an HIV/AIDS voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) center. At the youth center, the goal is to educate and create an improved communication process among youth in order to change their behaviors that put them at risk of contracting HIV. As the youth meet to discuss HIV prevention, they form friendships across ethnic lines. These exchanges among the youth reinforce social cohesion and foster reconciliation. Similarly, at the VCT center, comradeship grows across ethnic lines, as people who have been touched by AIDS reach out to each other for support, without thought to their ethnic backgrounds.
Through its program in Rwanda, Africare is working to address major issues, such as HIV/AIDS and the post-genocide reconciliation process, that have a direct impact on the well-being of the Rwandan people.
To find out more about Rwanda and Africare's program there, click here.
To make a gift to support Africare programs such as these throughout Africa, click here.
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