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INTRODUCTION
The statistics only begin to speak of the human suffering. Worldwide more than 37.2 million adults and 2.2 million children are living with HIV/AIDS. Of this figure, 1.6 million people infected with HIV/AIDS live in Asian countries that border the Mekong River: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Yunnan Province of China.
Cambodia has the highest adult HIV/AIDS prevalence in these Asian counties. Almost 2.6% of the Cambodian population or 275,000 Cambodian adults (ages 15-49) test positively for the virus. In this small country of 11 million people, 7.8% of all children below the age of 15 have already lost one parent to AIDS. Relief organizations now estimate that there are as many as 55,000 orphans in Cambodia as a result of the epidemic. Twelve thousand Cambodian children are today thought to be living with HIV/AIDS.
Unfortunately Cambodia is a country not well equipped to deal with this increasingly serious problem. Severe economic and human resource constraints in the health care sector exist. Doctors Without Borders reports that only 100 specialized beds earmarked for adult AIDS patients can be found in Cambodia, sixty of these in the Norodom Sihanouk Hospital in Phnom Penh. The national and local governments continue to rely heavily on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) to augment care programs that address HIV/AIDS education, prevention and regulation.
Care International-Cambodia and Seedling of Hope (with funding from MaryKnoll) are partnering to build two new AIDS pediatric centers in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. In January 2005, Care International-Cambodia saw student designs completed for a Land Mine Museum Prevention and Rehabilitation Center scheduled to be built in Siem Reap. CARE contacted the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University and asked the students to submit preliminary designs for the new Pediatric HIV/AIDS Centers.
The new pediatric HIV/AIDS Centers will be patterned after the successful MaryKnoll Seedling of Hope project that opened its doors in 1996. Each Center will house 100 children in group homes. Each group home will provide a family setting for up to 10 children. A small clinic will care for children who live at the Center. In addition, the clinic will provide services for some children who are able to live with their families and care givers outside the Center. A vocational training facility will provide space for quilting and a market garden will enable the children to be productive, build self-esteem and supplement their diets. The Center acknowledges that medicines address physical concerns yet as important are the care and support that greatly augments the quality of life and ultimately, the quality of death.
Click on the logos below to learn more about CARE-International and the Seedlings of Hope-Maryknoll project.
