Haiti: Jean and Arc-En-Ciel
Jean, who lives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is a typical teenager. Typical, except for one thing: his mother and two of his three sisters are HIV positive.
“I was shocked when she told me two years ago,” the 17-year-old Jean said. “I won’t lie to you. I didn’t cry, but I was shocked. It took me two weeks to find the courage to tell my brother.”
With the highest HIV-prevalence rate outside sub-Saharan Africa, 5.6 per cent of Haiti’s adult population are HIV positive. In recent years, Haiti has been delivering anti-retroviral treatment to a fortunate few through community-based organisations. However, with a pledge of US$40 million, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is planning to make treatment much more widely available.
Jean’s mother and sisters are beneficiaries of an Arc-En-Ciel outreach programme that helps children orphaned by AIDS-related illness or who have parent living with HIV/AIDS. The programme aims to keep infected parents alive, support adults caring for orphaned children, and provide for the children themselves.
Arc-En-Ciel holds its clinic three times a week in Port-au-Prince. People who need anti-retroviral treatment are referred to the GHESKIO Centre, where they receive drugs provided by UNICEF. Almost all of the children are in good health, thanks to a team of doctors and nurses.
“Even though my mother is ill, we are able to live the same way as we always did,” Jean says. School-books scattered on the beds indicate at least one major change for his family: Jean and his brother and sisters now go to school. In addition to an education, enjoyed by less than one-third of Haitian children, Jean and his siblings receive a hot meal every day at school – helping to keep them nourished.
Arc-En-Ciel is pioneering a new programme aimed at reaching even more children. “We work in peer education,” Jean says proudly during a visit to the centre to pick up his family’s monthly food ration. He and dozens of older Arc-En-Ciel youth attend classes in HIV awareness and education, and then, armed with pamphlets, they talk to other young people at churches, schools and community centres.
