13 Orphans

There is a Christian orphanage 4 hours away from us who have 13 children affected with HIV. These children were being cared for by a local Doctor, but now he has left the area, and an alternative has not been found. We have therefore taken over their HIV care, and this week we saw them for the first time in two batches. They are wonderful kids, who are so grateful to be receiving help. Some of them had simply been abandoned on the railway platform. So sad.
Unfortunately their HIV care was all wrong, and may actually have done them harm, as it is likely to produce drug resistance quite quickly. Thankfully most of them didn't actually need treatment yet, so we will be able to stop treatment and re-commence in a few years. 2 of the children have got treatment failure though, as they really needed treatment, and have been on the wrong drugs, and have treatment failure and are getting sicker. They have drug resistance now, and are therefore likely to die sooner than they needed to. It is very frustrating and sad. Please pray for them. Please also pray for us to remain strong in the face of death of children.
I gave each of them a small note-pad and pen, and they were so pleased with such a small gift!