NGO to Raise N15m for Orphans
By Tunmise Adekunle
Hope Worldwide Nigeria, an international not-for--profit organization has unveiled its plan to raise N15 million at this year's "ARK" fundraising dinner in aid of children orphaned or at risk due to HIV/AIDS and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).
This announcement was made by the executive Director of the organization, Mr. Yemi Osilaja at a press conference held recently.
Speaking at the conference, he said: "the monies raised aside from of taking care of our N500 PLWHA's and 200 OVC's (Orphaned and Vulnerable Children) registered with us in Lagos, we shall also use a large chunk of the money to scale up our program in four other cities which include: Warri in Delta state, Ilorin in Kwara State, Port Harcourt in Rivers State and Abuja."
"We intend to train ten community health workers, support fifty OVC's and fifty PLWHA's in each of the states. The care and support for OVC's and PLWHA's shall be in the areas of funding medical needs, school fees and educational materials, provision of food and nutritional support, psycho-social support and home based care"
The 2004 Ark fundraising dinner, which holds on Saturday, 28 August at the prestigious Yoruba Tennis Club, is the third edition of the special Hope program which was instituted in 2001 when Hope set up the Ark Committee to ensure an annual fundraising event in aids of OVC. Under Hope's Program, Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) are children whose parents or guardians have died or have been physically and financially incapacitated due to deteriorating health and other related situations caused by HIV/AIDS.
Osilaja recounted that Hope so far has "reached 5,000 PLWHA's through counseling out of which 500 are fully registered in our eight support groups operating in six centres all over Lagos State. Over 50 OVC's benefit from our educational scholarship program, over 200 from our care, treatment and nutritional support program and the number is on the increase. And through our prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) program"
The HIV/AIDS has continuous to posed a big threat to the human race and in order to combat the virus, Hope Worldwide has in the last seven years worked assiduously through public teachings, rallies and charity walks. These they have embarked upon to raise awareness and educate the public on the economic and health challenges that HIV presents to the human existence while drawing their attention to positive living habits.
The global estimate of PLWHA was put at 43 million in 2002 while children orphaned or at risk, OVC was put at 10 million. These figures have grown since then and so has the figure for children orphaned by the virus in Nigeria which was estimated to be over l million in 2002. It has been estimated that if nothing drastic is done, the numbers of PLWHA will hit the 50 million mark while children orphaned by the virus will rise to 12 million by 2005.
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