“We had no food in the house at all. What a gift from God when they came to the door!” exclaimed Rosaria.
Rosaria was the recipient of one of the food baskets distributed by the AIDS Support groups. She explained that her family had eaten the last of the food and there was nothing left. When the food basket was delivered by other PVVS (personas viviendo con VIH/SIDA, people living with HIV/AIDS), she could not help but see it as God acting in her life through the PVVS community. The first baskets were delivered this week. People received the baskets with mixtures of relief, disbelief, thankfulness, and tears.
The AIDS Support groups have a new grant to assist PVVS like Rosaria who need help with nutrition (among other things). The AIDS Support groups are in a good position to know where the greatest needs lie. The AIDS Support group members will be involved with determining who receives the monthly food baskets, shopping for the food items, assembling the contents of the baskets, delivering them to other PVVS, and handling the paperwork.
The grant’s purpose is to enable the PVVS community to identify and act on issues to improve HIV treatment literacy and therapy results. Besides the food baskets, the grant will also provide assistance for transportation costs for patients to attend appointments, training for four HIV adherence peer counselors, programs to encourage HIV testing and entry into treatment, and the formalization of the support groups’ status so that they can seek independent funding. The Clinic is administering the grant on behalf of the support groups’ while working on their organizational development so that they can do it themselves in the future.
This whole endeavor requires grant writers, approval of the request, funding from an international treatment coalition, monitoring and evaluation functions, administration, accounting support, and willing volunteers. Rosaria’s viewpoint is more along the lines of: “I was hungry and you gave me food.” Actually, that is pretty much our viewpoint, too – despite the complexity of the whole process.
Keep praying, Anita and Michael