Be a Guardian Angel to Joy and Her Sisters

You can be a guardian angel to HIV-impacted and vulnerable girls like Joy.    Joy lost her father to HIV/AIDS when she was 8 years old, and shortly after his death her mother started showing symptoms of a similar disease.    At the time, Joy did not know that her mother was living with HIV and already on antiretroviral medication (ARV).     When she learned about her mother’s HIV disease, “I felt the world had come to an end,” she says.  Her mother was the only provider for Joy and her younger sister.   As Joy’s mother’s health worsened, Joy took on more and more responsibility.    Now that her mother is on anti-retroviral medication she tries to find light work to earn a bit of money for food.  Joy—now age 16—gets herself, her younger sister and a step-sister to school each day.    Unlike other children who take lunch at school, these children cannot eat because there is no money to pay lunch dues.    After school, Joy and the younger girls try to find work in the community to raise money for food, medicine, school fees and books, sometimes not coming home until 9 or 10 at night.   If they fail to raise enough funds, Joy and the younger girls sometimes cannot attend school because the fees are not paid.

Joy is just one of nearly 18 million of  children around the world orphaned by HIV/AIDS who needs a Guardian Angel.

You can be the  Guardian Angel who helps provide Joy and other young girls with food and an education to equip them to live a healthy, hopeful future. (learn more)