APARA’s mission
Since December 1998 when it was founded, the American Pan-African Relief Agencies (APARA) have provided food, medical supplies, and financial support to the underprivileged population of the Pan-African region, the most impoverished continent in the world. Through its programs focusing on support of AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children in Africa, economical empowerment, and supply of relief materials, APARA assisted the disadvantaged population is facing the challenges of poverty, diseases, and famine. By providing financial aid and distributing the supplies to save lives and meet the emergency needs of the population, APARA brings help, hope, and light to African families and communities. The generous donations from the general public, foundations, and government organizations were valuable for launching the programs and pursuing the noble goals of this non-profit organization. To continue its mission, launch new programs and provide more services to those in need, APARA still needs the financial support of the public and corporations. Every small donation is appreciated because the scope of the challenges faced by Africans is overwhelming and only by uniting our efforts, we would be able to bring help and hope to those who extremely need it.
AIDS orphans in Africa
The rates of natural disasters, diseases, poverty, and hunger as the main challenges faced by Africans are tremendous. Whereas natural disasters resulting in injuries, loss of life, and property along with wars and epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are common for different corners of the world, the prevalence of diseases in Africa is tremendous and the scope of tragedies resulting from natural disasters is overwhelming.
Africa is more heavily affected by the epidemics of HIV and AIDS than any other region. According to the statistical report of 2009, the number of people living with HIV in the world was estimated at 34 million people with the rates in Africa reaching 23 million people, including 2.3 million children (“Sub-Saharan Africa HIV & AIDS Statistics”). In 2009, during only one year, about 1.3 million Africans died from AIDS. About 16 million children have been orphaned because at least one of their parents died from AIDS. About 14.8 million AIDS orphans live in Africa (“AIDS Orphans”). In some African countries which are badly affected by the epidemics the rates of children orphaned due to AIDS are striking. For instance, approximately 12% of children in Botswana and 16% of children in Zimbabwe have lost one or both of their parents due to AIDS. Regardless of the expansion of the antiretroviral medication, Africans have only limited access to this treatment and the future forecasts regarding the prevalence of HIV and AIDs among the population of Africa remain unfavorable.
Apart from access to medication, several cultural factors specific to Africa stimulate the spread of HIV and AIDS. Specifically, gender inequalities and some sexual practices have a significant impact on the epidemic of HIV and AIDS in Africa. According to the report presented by the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa to the UN Secretary-General in 2008, polygamy and patriarchal control over the sexual activities of married couples not only fuel the transmission of HIV/AIDS but also prevent women from accessing the prevention interventions (“A New Report Says Some Cultural Factors”). Currently, African countries start to reform their legislation by criminalizing certain cultural practices which not only violate human rights but also promote the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. Still, this is only the beginning of the reformation and the first improvements cannot be expected in the nearest future.
As it can be seen from the statistical reports, regardless of the high rates of floods and other natural disasters, HIV/AIDs is one of the major factors of premature deaths in an African population. Moreover, adults dying from AIDS in Africa leave their children who frequently have the infection as well without parental care and financial support. Psychologically, it is impossibly hard to understand that your mom or dad is going to die and you may end up leaving this world just the same way. There is evidence that children whose parents have HIV or AIDS experience negative changes and emotional neglect even before their parents die. Apart from the emotional impact of neglect and traumas resulting from parents’ deaths, children need to adapt to a new situation after their parent or parents die due to AIDS. After they are orphaned, African children are left with little or no support and can be exploited or abused. Apart from the psychological traumas, these orphans face several serious challenges of earning their living at a tender age. Most AIDS orphans lack access to necessities, including food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and education. Suffering from the lack of income, AIDS orphans look for opportunities to make a financial contribution to the household by working or begging and looking for food in the streets. Consequently, receiving an education is out of the question. Furthermore, being associated with AIDS, these children become stigmatized before and after the death of their parents. Due to this stigma, AIDS orphans can be not only socially isolated but even denied their right to healthcare and education. Due to the shame and the stigma carried out by HIV and AIDS into any society, African orphans become victims who are left without social and financial support and drag out a miserable existence.
Malaria and tuberculosis in Africa
Notwithstanding the worldwide progress in controlling the epidemics of malaria and tuberculosis, these diseases remained an important influential factor affecting the death rates in Africa, particularly the death rates of pregnant women and children under five. Even though cost-effective tools and medications have become available, the levels of the population’s access to them remain inadmissibly low. Even though certain measures were taken for adopting appropriate policies and strategies effective for the control of malaria and tuberculosis rates, these strategies did not have any significant impact upon the rates of morbidity and mortality resulting from these diseases in the Pan-African region. The heads of the governments of the African countries supported by charitable organizations expressed their commitment to dedicate resources to fighting tuberculosis and malaria as one of the important issues included in the plans of broader socio-economic development. The increased efforts in controlling the epidemics of these diseases indicated certain signs of hope for future improvement in decreasing the morbidity rates.
Regardless of insignificant improvements, the health care systems of the majority of African countries have several weaknesses giving rise to the problems which cannot be handled at the cost of domestic resources of the Pan-African region which is recognized as the poorest continent in the world. Thus, the availability of malaria- and tuberculosis-related commodities remains unacceptably low. The prices of insecticide-treated nets and therapies are too high for the end-users. To crown it all, the policies concerning free, subsidized, or commercial distribution of these commodities are conflicting, whereas the main burden of malaria and tuberculosis are put upon Africans who frequently cannot afford themselves three daily meals, not to mention costly malaria and tuberculosis control interventions.
For these reasons, about 90% of people suffering from malaria and tuberculosis in the world come from Africa. About 4 million children die from malaria in Africa every year.
The potential of funding the unfortunate Africans
Regardless of the overwhelming scope of the challenges faced by African populations, effective solutions for decreasing the rates of the epidemics of HIV, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis and providing the necessary financial and social support to AIDS orphans and those who lack access to the essentials in Africa can be developed and implemented by APARO. The donations of the general public, corporations, and governmental organizations would allow this non-profit organization to continue its programs aimed at providing help and hope to the unfortunate Africans in the form of relief supplies, medication, and educational programs.
It is necessary to get at the root of this slow-motion catastrophe by providing a proper education level to adult Africans and their families. The APARA will embrace works on leveling up education, medical treatment, social and economic development. It is important to make the situation of child mortality change for better through proper education. It is evident that along with poor living conditions and cultural traditions, one of the most influential predictors of the current situation is the lack of population awareness on the risks of HIV and AIDS and measures which should be imposed to prevent the hazards. So, give us more opportunities through your kind donations to carry on the educative programs on HIV/AIDs familiarization and occupational training. Once every average adult African knows measures to prevent HIV contamination, it is possible to hope for the better. It is very hard to get the educational process set up well in Pan-African regions. However, telling people about AIDS and free testing can make a huge difference.
There is an urgent need for medical supplies distribution, of course. There is practically nothing we can do to those who died because of AIDS, however, there are people who are alive and wait and appreciate every single cent and pharmaceutical we provide. APARA strives to make orphans’ lives better because they have undergone too much within their short lives to end it up miserably. Besides HIV/AIDs, there is malaria in Africa that can be simply prevented by setting an insecticide-treated mosquito net. This, of course, will not help already infected patients. However, it can hugely enlarge the possibility of malaria disease rates decreasing. Hopefully, there will be more medical centers around Western Africa to provide necessary medical treatment in case of urgent need. Since this country is unable to provide this so far, we are asking you to make this difference for people who will be extremely grateful if their kids overgrow the age of five, at least. The rates of children’s deaths are dreadful even in the developed countries of Africa: “in Nigeria 191 of every 1,000 children die by the age of five, in Botswana it is 124 and in Kenya, it is 121” (Allen, “Africa: Child Deaths Drop”). The children are often left to extreme poverty once their parents die because there is no one else to provide for the family. You can either adopt or sponsor an orphan through college or university. These kids are passionately waiting for responsible families to adopt them and give another – better – home anywhere on earth. There is a wonderful opportunity to bring light and goodness to this world by adopting or sponsoring an orphan. You can adopt a child through our organization and this will make an unbelievable contribution to what we aim for. Many people have already participated in this program and this is what makes us believe that the world can become better, kinder, and more peaceful.
The donations received from the general public, corporations, and organizations are spent on vaccination and further prevention from malaria and testing to reveal HIIV/AIDS infection. There are individual and group funding of kids through African organization to ensure orphans are treated well. However, not all of them are taken care of. Many orphans are still abandoned to face the harshness of African nature, hunger, and diseases. People cannot remain indifferent and passive when orphans are dying from AIDs and other diseases in Africa.
All of them have hopes that are majorly unrealizable with HIV/AIDs diagnosis but we cannot abandon hopes to provide them substantially with food, clothes, and medical treatment.
What we ask you to do is to give these children a sense of care. We are going to use every single cent you donate to create deserving life conditions and better medical treatment for those people who learn what means a healthy country sometime in the future. Our goals are long-term ones because we hope to make a difference today so that it echoes the way in the future. According to USAID and UNAIDS, more than 16 million children who are at the present orphans, have lost at least one parent due to AIDS. We will work hard to create rehabilitation programs for orphans. One of the main purposes is to educate the orphans to give them sustainable future opportunities and to care about those HIV/AIDs kids. Large-scale tragedies such as tremors, tsunamis, and the AIDS tragedy bring forth necessary communal hard work to distribute efficient services to the wounded.
Organizations working with us in Africa perform their duties at best by supplying people in need with everything we send. There are already children who found their host families in the US. We are working persistently o educate people in Africa on the issue of abstinence. This is going to become one of the fundamental issues that we will keep on bringing to Western Africa. Additionally, the rates of orphans are increasing annually due to high mortality rates and civil wars.
APARA sends medicaments to Africa to stop malaria and TB outbreaks. Besides, we have successfully cooperated with such organizations as African Christian Fellowship to provide victims of natural disasters with medical aid and financial support.
Action plan
In the nearest future, APARA in cooperation with Save Humanity Initiative and African-based charitable organizations are going to launch a campaign aimed at reducing the rates of epidemics of HIV, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in Africa as the most impoverished continent in the world with the highest rates of morbidity and mortality. A substantial amount of funds will be dedicated to the implementation of strategies providing psychological, social, and financial support to AIDS orphans.
To fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS, APARA will purchase and distribute antiretroviral medications which have proven to be effective for reducing the rates of an epidemic of HIV worldwide but remain unaffordable for the African populations. Subsidized tests will be offered to the Africans to monitor and diagnose the levels of HIV and AIDS. Measures will be imposed to prevent the mother-child transmission of HIV using the postnatal prophylactic single-dose antiretroviral intervention. Home-based solutions for the problems associated with HIV and AIDS will be offered to the unfortunate Africans. New tools for counseling children with HIV or AIDS will be developed. Importantly, APARA plans to establish community-based treatment centers for raising the awareness of the population on the existing stress-coping strategies and preventative measures which can be imposed to minimize the risks of infection. Additionally, educational programs would be offered to the personnel of the medical centers to raise their awareness of modern and effective interventions and strategies of antiretroviral vaccination.
Regarding the objective of reducing the rates of epidemics of malaria and tuberculosis, APARA will purchase and distribute long-lasting insecticide-treated nets among all categories of the population for free. As it is reported by the WHO, these long-lasting bed nets are among the most cost-effective means of fighting against malaria. Additionally, APARA will launch educational programs to raise people’s awareness on how to clean their apartments and environments to reduce the risks of infection and other preventative measures which are critical for stopping the epidemics. Special attention will be paid to the programs aimed at the financial empowerment of individuals taking care of children who were orphaned because of AIDS, other diseases, natural disasters, and wars.
To reach these objectives, APARA has established and maintained collaborative networks with a wide array of organizations, including the local governments and political leaders, hospitals, healthcare centers, orphanages, service providers, and religious organizations. By uniting their efforts and receiving generous donations from those individuals and corporations who believe that this world can be more humane, APARA will be able to save lives and bring help and hope to the most impoverished continent in the world. Concentrating efforts on the common goals, these organizations will be able to reduce the rates of epidemics of HIV, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, mortality and morbidity resulting from them, and economically empowering the unfortunate Africans and orphans who are stigmatized and lack access to the essentials.
Importantly, the campaign launched by APARA is not limited to providing relief supplies to the African populations but deals with some of the underlying causes of the current enormous scope of the tragedies, namely the lack of awareness on the preventative measures in the African population. After conducting preliminary research on the access of the population to the health care services and their quality, APARA selected the most cost-effective tools to improve the overall coverage of the continent and provide help to the greatest possible number of unfortunate Africans.
Works Cited
“AIDS Orphans”. Averting HIV and Aids, n.d. Web. 2011.
Allen, John. “Africa: Child Deaths Drop, But Continent Still Struggles.” All Africa. 2008. Web.
“A New Report Says Some Cultural Factors Influencing Spread of AIDS Are Specific to Africa”. Economic Commission for Africa, 2008. Web.
“Sub-Saharan Africa HIV & AIDS Statistics”. Averting HIV and Aids, n.d. Web. 2011