- Save a Life with 100 Ghana New Cedis only ………

The Woyome Foundation for Africa (WOFA), has kick-started its first major programme by launching the One-For-One OVC campaign barely a month after officially inaugurating its offices and launching its project.

The new campaign aims at raising funds, primarily from working class Ghanaians and other nationals residing in Ghana, to procure drugs (antiretroviral ) and booster for children infected with HIV/AIDS in Ghana.

WOFA is a charity foundation registered in Ghana and is focused on providing care and support for People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), and protection and support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), as well as will also support the intensification of public education aimed at attitudinal changes towards HIV/AIDS and the stigmatisation of PLWHVAs and OVCs.

The objective of the One-For-One campaign fundraising is to raise enough funds to support the provision of a year’s supply of antiretrovirals, boosters and where needed, nutritional support, for at least 350 infected children by the end of the campaign period, and also to help with better integration of OVCs in society by getting them to look healthy and also access educational opportunities, where possible.

The campaign is aimed at the working class, both young and old, professionals, in the markets, in the churches, in the associations and clubs. WOFA staff, by example is contributors to this project, whereby they have each adopted at least a child to provide the drugs and the boosters, as well as the nutrition in order to prolong their lives.

The Foundation intends to use influential people in the society to trumpet its project, religious and traditional leaders, the media and in fact, they would rely on all Ghanaians to promote this worthy cause.

In all cases and at all times, donors will be issued with a WOFA OVC receipt and made to fill out a form with contact details to enable WOFA IT team key in the details in the online donor portal and make it easier and possible to contact donors for follow-up donations or appreciation.

Participating radio and television stations will also be used as donation points where cheques and/or cash will be received. Designated churches, associations, groups and so on, will also be used as donation points.

A number of collection points will be developed at major shopping malls and banking halls. Sealed donation boxes with two padlocks each and keys held separately by WOFA and the manager of the outlet will be placed at these ponts.

Mrs. Stella Afriyie-Ankrah, HIV/AIDS Consultant of WOFA said more than 25 million adults and children have died from AIDS worldwide in the past two decades, saying that if anti-retroviral drugs had been available to them, probably, most of them would be alive today.

She noted that anti-retroviral drugs work by blocking HIV from replicating and functioning in the body, emphasising that while the medicines are not a cure for AIDS, they have brought extraordinary hope to people and especially children infected with HIV and have transformed AIDS into chronic but manageable disease.

She indicated that the UNAIDS estimates that at least seven million children are in urgent need of antiretrovirals and in countries where the drugs have been made available, there has been about 60 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths, and that in Ghana, less than 10 percent of infected children have access to the life prolonging antiretrovirals.

The Consultant opined that in the past, about two-thirds of child infections occurred during pregnancy, labour, delivery and breastfeeding before the introduction of antiretroviral prophylaxis to prevent mother-to-child transmissions.

“Broken homes have also contributed to infections; where a mother, the sole breadwinner is out of the house when her daughter is raped and later found to be HIV infected; where a drunkard HIV positive father has sex with his own daughter thus infecting her; where young people due to poverty and living on the streets are exposed to HIV infection”, she stated.

Mrs. Afriyie-Ankrah lamented that there are quite a number of children infected with HIV/AIDS, many of whom for purely financial reasons and also society’s reaction to infected persons are suffering because they are not on antiretrovirals, adding that food consumption in an AIDS infected household can drop by as much as 40 percent, leaving at a higher risk of malnutrition and stunting.

“Children infected by the virus have the greatest need for health services but poverty and unemployment of their parents or caregivers often put them at high risk of dying before accessing health services and it requires commitment and action at all levels, from government right down to the communities. This is what informed the One-For-One campaign”, she maintained.

Daniel C. Dugan, Deputy Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, who launched the fundraising campaign, indicated that the prevailing stigmatization which goes with the HIV positive persons or HIV/AIDS status, worsens the plight of those child victims who are hidden away from public attention.

He noted that effective programmes for prevention and care programmes in low-income countries can be burdensome, saying that, in spite of the best will and efforts on the part of governments, the problem is daunting.

The Deputy Minister said that in Africa, the extended family safety net is proving inadequate as relations lack adequate time and material resources to provide required total support, stressing that this difficulty leads to instances of abuse of those unfortunate children. “The situation cannot be left to stay as it is, or to worsen. HIV/AIDS infected children should have the necessary nutritious foods in the absence of their mothers. They should have good health care, education, security and psychosocial needs satisfied”, he mentioned.

He continued; “some quick and positive action is required of safety in this crisis. It is therefore heart warming to have an initiative such as WOFA to help address the myriad of problems which HIV/AIDS produces and particularly the plight of orphaned children from HIV/AIDS parents or child of HIV/AIDS victims.

“Initiatives like this one would supplement the efforts of government in Ghana to provide a sustainable source of funds for treatment and care for children who in one way or the other are affected by the pandemic”.

He therefore called for a committed support to this initiative by WOFA, which he said can go a long way to help Ghana in particular and Africa at large; saying; “care and support is a right, drug and therapy is a right to the afflicted child. Let us make the difference by donating to change the terrible situation to a better one”.