I Have Seen, So I Am Responsible

Tonight, as I dined on chicken salad sandwiches, spinach and artichoke dip, meatballs, various cheeses, and other delectable hor dourves, I was introduced to children named Alpha and Harriet, a woman named Emmy, and countless other people far away on the continent of Africa.  As I sipped my water and enjoyed my decaf coffee, I learned how 40% of children just like Alpha and Harriet are HIV positive.  I saw how only 3-7% of the babies in Africa who test HIV positive are receiving the life-saving ARV medication they so desperately need.  I heard how pregnant women, typically 18-23 years of age, so often automatically choose abortion for fear that they have passed on their HIV to their unborn baby.  Rather than risk the child being ostracized as they have been, the women decide to spare the child from such hardships.  What these women don't realize is that they could very well die themselves from the abortion procedure.  Furthermore, they don't understand that if they take ARV medication while pregnant, their baby will very likely not be HIV positive at all!

As the statistics came across the screen, my heart dropped to the floor.  As I listened to three native Africans share how they are fighting not for nameless women and children, but for their brothers and sisters, their aunts and nieces and nephews, I couldn't help but think how privileged I am.  How privileged my two little girls are.  How privileged my unborn child is.  Not once in my 30 years have I worried about HIV.  Not once have I lost sleep, worrying that my daughter would get HIV from me.  Not once during this pregnancy have I considered if my baby is going to test positive for HIV and if so what I will do, how I will manage to go on with life.  Not a day goes by when I don't have enough to eat or to feed my children.  I don't have to stress about drinking water or a place to sleep or clothes to wear or transportation to the doctor's office some 50 miles away.  And yet that is daily life for the people I met on the screen tonight.

$1 a day.  That's how much the average person makes in the countries where Global Health Innovations is seeking to revolutionize the way hospitals treat pregnant women, their unborn babies, and their older children.  With only $1 a day, most women can't afford countless trips to a hospital for testing and retesting.  They can't give up a day of work to sit in the waiting room only to discover their test results never actually made it back to the hospital in the first place.  And so they don't come for the testing.  Or if they do come for the initial visit, they don't come back for the results or to for their child to receive medication at 6 months or to be retested at 9 months and then again at 18 months.

Having lived in Haiti, a country so backwards and unorganized and what have you, this nightmare of transporting test results and ensuring that they are delivered and then sent back and given to the right woman is just too much to even imagine.  Let alone ensuring the woman comes to the hospital and then returns when she is supposed to, at all the right dates and times.  Yeah, not happening!!!

Not without the help of Global Health Innovations.  Seriously, watch this video to see how this system can change the way tests are done, the way results are transported, and the way women and children are taken care of so that they can LIVE.

Crazy enough, Brad Gautney the founder of GHI used to live in Haiti, in the same area I did when I was serving with Kids Alive International.  I actually bought shelves from his family to use in my house/room when I moved in with Jarod and Jennifer Ebenhack.  And now, Brad and his family live in Liberty.  They go to Liberty Christian Fellowship, a church just blocks from our old house!  What a small world!  What a BIG God!!!!

Brad actually started GHI while in Haiti and was testing children daily for HIV.  They would send the tests to John Hopkins and were starting to make strides in helping women and their babies get the medication they need to fight HIV and live!  Soon though, John Hopkins had to stop their support, telling Brad they were doing more tests of his from Haiti in one MONTH than they were for the entire US in one YEAR!!!

Brad was able to find some people in Africa who could help him implement the program in Kenya.  GHI is now working with hospitals in Tanzania and Malawi.  They have gone from 4 hospitals to 90, in just 1 year!

I have always wanted to go to Africa, but the opportunity has never really presented itself.  The desire is still there, but again, the doors are not open at this time.  However, from my home right here in Kansas City, Missouri, I can be a part of what is happening in Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi.  I may not fly to Africa or step foot on the soil, but I can still make a difference.  I can still help these women and children (and their families).  And you can too!!!

Please, I beg of you, check out the website to learn more about this organization and the good work they are doing, how God is using them to impact the continent of Africa.

I will be writing more about GHI and what I learned tonight at the fund raiser.  My heart is full and I have to share what I have learned.  I have seen, so I am responsible.  Want to become responsible with me?!!!