We realize that after reading this week's Cover Story, you may want to do something. Working with Netaid.org, an arm of the U.N. using the Internet to help those in trouble, Time has developed opportunities to lend a hand. You can contribute by visiting Netaid.org. This is not our first project. In the past two years, Time readers have saved mothers' lives in Rwanda, found homes for orphans in Africa and helped Sierra Leonean war wounded get medical treatment. If you prefer to send a check, an address is available on the Netaid site. AOL members can go to keyword Breaking the Silence.
Our Goals
- Educate 200,000 African children about AIDS
- Raise $1.2 million to help African and Asian prevention
- Train 500 health workers; distribute 5,000 health kits
EDUCATION
Outreach Kit
South Africa has one of the youngest populations in the world — more than 40% under 18. LoveLife seminars familiarize kids with the risks of sex and provide medical advice for those too scared to bring up the disease at home. A single kit, which includes tools for learning, could save dozens of children's lives.
Goal: educate 80,000 kids.
One kit: $17
COMPASSION
Street-Child Placement
AIDS has created a generation of orphans, below, who live on the streets in deep poverty. No one cares for them, and they are a nexus for another generation of infection — 360,000 kids have been made homeless this way. This placement program aims to find homes for some of them — and to kick-start international awareness of the problem.
Goal: find homes for 1,320 children.
One kit: $59
HEALTH ASSISTANCE
Training/Care Kit
With infection rates in Zimbabwe topping 25%, the nation's medical services are overloaded. The task of coping has fallen to community and family members. Your donation will train local workers to provide families with the knowledge and supplies to care for the sick, helping them live longer and preventing transmission to others.
Goal: train 500 workers.
One kit: $19
PREVENTION
Coastal Education Kit
Seafarers and their wives on Myanmar's coast are very vulnerable to HIV. The virus spreads when fishermen return from trips and transmit HIV to their wives, who pass it to unborn or nursing children. Your donation will help slow the spread of AIDS near Kawthaung, where sex education and condoms are not widely available.
Goal: distribute 600,000 condoms.
One kit: $25
LOCAL AID ORGANIZATIONS
Recommended by TIME writer Johanna McGeary
Interested donors should contact the people listed below to find out how to give. All these programs are self-funded and desperately need help: blankets, clothing, food, toys and cash donations to finance school fees or purchase vehicles.
Home-based Care Support Program
All-volunteer program that provides care to HIV/AIDS victims in rural KwaZulu-Natal province, the hardest-hit part
of South
Africa
c/o Dr. Tony Moll, Director
Church of Scotland Hospital
Tugela Ferry, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
To help, contact Moll, e-mail: tony@futuregtn.co.za
phone: 011-27-82-781-0158
fax: 011-33-493-0720
Sinoziso Home Care Program
All-volunteer home care program that helps
residents of Durban's townships, squatter camps and child care centers
c/o Liz Towell, Director
Sinosizo Home Based Care
P O Box 489, Hyper by the Sea, 4053
NPO Registration Number: 005-827 NPO
To help, contact Towle, phone: 011- 27-31-400-6500 or e-mail: ltowell@iafrica.com
Shining Stars of Monarch
All-volunteer AIDS orphans program involving
feeding programs, awareness training and other services for orphans from
the
hard-hit city of Francistown, Botswana
c/o Patricia Bakwinya
Shining Stars of Monarch
Tshireletso AIDS Awareness Group
P.O. Box 20815
Monarch, Francistown, Botswana
To help, contact Bakwinya, phone:011-267-203-336 or 011-72-152-852
Pushing What The Internet Can Do To Help
SOME PIONEERING IDEAS
Using the full power of the Net to help people means finding a way to untether giving from desktop PCs. TIME, Netaid.org and Palm Computing built a special wireless application that can be downloaded at netaid.org. The program lets Palm VII users treat their handheld like a virtual UNICEF box, collecting donations from friends and family and then uploading them to the Web. In another initiative designed to help spread information about AIDS around the Web, TIME worked with KesselsKramer, an Amsterdam ad agency, and UNAIDS to develop an AIDS counter, which constantly tracks the number of cases of HIV in southern Africa. The counter is a Net banner that you can download from Netaid and put on your home page. Clicking on the banner links sends users to Netaid.org, where they can make a donation.
