Hemmed Lukonge, CRS Tanzania’s senior program officer for PEPFAR-funded projects for orphans and vulnerable children, shares his account of meeting First Lady Laura Bush and First Lady Salima Kikwete of Tanzania.

Dr. Aisha Kigoda, Tanzania Deputy Minister for Health and Social Welfare, introduces the National Plan of Action to the First Ladies. Photo by Dan Griffin/CRS

Last week I was honored to meet First Lady Laura Bush and First Lady Salima Kikwete of Tanzania. These two admirable women launched Tanzania’s National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children this past Sunday, February 17, in Dar es Salaam.

The event was a celebration of the significant support these children are receiving — help that is enabling them to stay in school, stay healthy and thrive even in the absence of one or both parents. Government officers, donor agencies and implementing partners joined children and their caregivers in launching the new plan, with gift-giving, singing and dancing adding to the excitement.

Funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR, is playing a large role in Tanzania’s comprehensive strategy for protecting orphans and vulnerable children nationwide. Through PEPFAR programs, more than 200,000 children affected by HIV are receiving critical support services; as an implementing PEPFAR partner in Tanzania, Catholic Relief Services is supporting almost 52,000 of these children.

After the launch of the plan, the First Ladies toured informational booths showing the breadth of support offered to children in need. At the booth demonstrating household care, I welcomed them both and showed them how nutritional support, microfinance initiatives and income-generation activities, including food processing, handicraft making and small-scale farming, are helping families affected by HIV to make ends meet.

CRS’ Hemmed Lukonge shows the First Ladies of the U.S. and Tanzania crops grown by children and families affected by HIV. Photo by Amy Rumano/CRS

Mrs. Bush asked me about SILC, CRS’ innovative Savings and Internal Lending Communities, which she had learned of previously. I assured her that SILC is an important part of CRS’ programs in Tanzania, enabling poor families to improve their quality of life by saving small sums of money and accessing micro-loans for small business through pooled group savings.

I also shared with the First Ladies how PEPFAR-funded programs are improving the living environment of orphans in need through shelter enhancements and are increasing food supplies through home gardens. Both Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Kikwete were impressed by the pumpkins, cabbages, carrots and more grown by orphans and their caregivers.

“Through this partnership between Tanzania and the United States, we can restore lives and hope to orphans and their families,” Mrs. Bush said in a speech at the event. With the PEPFAR program now up for reauthorization by the U.S. Congress, we can only hope that this critical assistance and funding will continue for an additional five years and beyond.

CRS President Ken Hackett testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Photo by Rick Reinhard

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) President Ken Hackett testified today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, calling on the influential panel to continue and expand the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The only witness representing an agency carrying out PEPFAR programs overseas, Hackett focused on critical needs on the ground.

“PEPFAR is above all a program of hope,” he told the committee while highlighting the need to provide adequate resources, to coordinate with other assistance programs - particularly those focused on nutrition, agriculture and education - and to enhance PEPFAR’s basic model.

Read Ken’s written testimony.

CRS Ethiopia holds a vigil with its staff for World AIDS Day. Photo by CRS staff

CRS offices around the world work on HIV projects daily, but employees often don’t have time to stop and reflect together on the impact of the disease on their own lives. Several CRS programs observed World AIDS Day with in-house events that allowed that time for reflection. Following are two entries about those events.

The first entry was sent in by Aynalem Demeke, a deputy administration manager with CRS Ethiopia who also serves as a point person for the HIV in the Workplace program.

CRS Ethiopia held a candlelight vigil to mark World AIDS Day and invited Berhane Kelkay, a woman living with HIV who works to educate other Ethiopians about the virus and lessen the stigma surrounding it. Berhane is a founder and the executive director of the Association of Women Living with HIV, a group known as “Tilla,” which means “umbrella” or “shelter.” The organization works to increase awareness and change attitudes about HIV through education, advocacy and promoting positive living. The association, which has more than 100 members, primarily focuses on women, who are often more vulnerable to the pandemic.

Berhane Kelkay arrives for the World AIDS Day ceremony at CRS Ethiopia. Photo by CRS staff

Berhane is a widow who quietly started serving people affected by the pandemic in her community, and grew to become a national figure on HIV issues. Speaking publicly at international symposiums and workshops, she challenges Ethiopians and those outside her country to confront the stigma often associated with HIV and understand the need to care for those affected.

A mother and a counselor to vulnerable youth, Berhane urged CRS to remember that problems children face today will continue into the next generation. She asked the audience to pledge to take an active role in awareness campaigns, echoing this year’s theme for World AIDS Day — leadership.

“Leadership starts at home, in the family,” she told the CRS employees in Addis Ababa.

Members of the staff said they were touched by Berhane’s presentation.

“She is one of the few HIV-positive women determined to expose her [story] to the public,” one person wrote in comments after the event. “I really acknowledge her effort and the great work she is doing.”

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The second entry was sent in by Debbie DeVoe, Catholic Relief Services’ regional information officer for East Africa, after participating in an HIV in the Workplace event at CRS Kenya in honor of World AIDS Day.

Talking about HIV and AIDS isn’t always easy. There’s often a fear in the back of your mind that someone might think your question is stupid, especially since you’re supposed to be completely informed working for an international aid agency. And there’s the concern of offending someone in the room with the words you choose to use. And then let’s face it: HIV discussions touch on, yes, sex — a topic many don’t want to talk about to anyone but their best friends. And now they’re being asked to discuss it with 40 of their closest colleagues.

CRS Kenya HIV in the Workplace Officer Pauline Kibe makes it easy for staff to discuss HIV issues by keeping everyone laughing. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

CRS Kenya invited all staff to come together in honor of World AIDS Day. Amazingly, the event facilitator Pauline Kibe, CRS Kenya’s HIV in the Workplace officer, put everyone at ease and led employees to have a frank discussion about the issues they face in Kenya and the support CRS can offer.

CRS Kenya has strict guidelines to protect employee confidentiality — an employee who breaches confidentiality to reveal another employee’s HIV status risks penalties that include possible termination. CRS Kenya will also revise work expectations for an employee if failing health prevents him or her from taking on certain aspects of their job. And, like other CRS programs, CRS Kenya taps one staff member to be available to answer questions about HIV and provide support or counseling.

This event also highlighted the staff’s generosity. Over the course of a week, employees donated enough toys, clothes, food staples and shoes to fill nine boxes. These were distributed to three agencies: a privately funded program that CRS Kenya runs to help children orphaned by AIDS, a group that provides assistance in Nairobi’s slums, and an agency that rescues abandoned infants, cares for young girls and provides HIV services.

I’ve only been working in Kenya for seven months now, but I already feel like I’m part of a supportive family — and even better, one that laughs more than cries.