…to claim that they are driven to have sex because of their situation, as the Washington Post reports. AIDS is a death sentence for them. And where do little kids come in? Handing a condom to a 7-year-old kid in any country is still advocating sex for children. What if they are taught not to have sex? What if they are protected? Not young adults but children. To say abstinence is a Bush-ism is to dismiss it out of hand.

Here is a quick look at the situation from someone who lives it everyday — an African missionary, Fr. Steven Mosha, who is supported by our church here in Westchester. He runs a dispensary.

As you might have read in papers, seen on TV and heard on radio, the worst medical situation Africa is going through now is that of the spread of HIV/AIDS followed by malaria and other epidemics such as cholera.
Our dispensary loses almost one person monthly due to AIDS and we have very many admitted due to malaria, most hit are the children.
Last month we lost a victim to AIDS, here is his situation: He was first admitted at the general hospital. When the doctors there knew there was no hope for him, they discharged him. His family could not care for him and they brought him to our dispensary. We took care of him until he died. I was happy to have prayed over him and 30 minutes latter he died. May God rest him in His love.
Now we have another patient but he is not yet badly off. Coughing simply keeps wearing him down. He is a father to five children and cares for two grand children including their mothers. He is a mason and gets very small amount of money. What is worse now is that those who must pay him for services he rendered do not want to pay him. He now cannot buy medicine to keep himself alive. Such medicines here cost a fortune: one month’s dose costs $50 (Tanzania shilling 54,000), in a place where average wage is $30 (30,000) per month and bus fare to go to work costs $20 (20,000) per month!
For our dispensary to be able to take care of its patients we need plenty of antibiotics. USA has a plan to assist Africa with medicines and other medical support in this field of AIDS and malaria. We do need plenty of antibiotics. We, as a small dispensary can hardly have access to this USA Plan from here. Is there something we can do together so that we can get these antibiotics!
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We seriously need to train someone to handle these cases and do home visits to continue helping the families especially children of these victims. We have a lady (social worker) whom we would like to send for some study/course in this field of HIV/AIDS but we do not have the funds to train her. If we were to get money we could train her here or send her to Uganda (which has made considerable experience in this matter).
If you can help in any of these matters, please contact Father Steven via email at: [email protected]
Fr. S. Mosha