'Keep a Child Alive' with the Help Of 'Oprah's Angel Network' Aid 'Women's Equity In Access to Care & Treatment' In Rwanda

'Keep a Child Alive' with the Help Of 'Oprah's Angel Network' Aid 'Women's Equity In Access to Care & Treatment' In Rwanda

$50,000 From Keep A Child Alive to Aid Rwanda Genocide Victims

NEW YORK, April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Keep A Child Alive, (KCA) the emergency response to the AIDS pandemic ravaging the African continent is dedicated to providing life-saving AIDS medicine to children and families living with HIV/AIDS. KCA has awarded $50,000 of its $250,000 grant from Oprah's Angel Network to Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment (WE-ACTx) in Rwanda.

With the funding from KCA and Oprah's Angel Network, WE-ACTx will be able to scale up a clinic site in Kigali, providing medical care to over 3000 people with the expectation that up to 40% of them will eventually need antiretroviral treatment. In December of 2004, on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah presented Keep A Child Alive's dedicated spokesperson and nine-time Grammy Award winning Alicia Keys a check for a quarter of a million dollars from her Angel Network. The monies awarded to Keep A Child Alive have since funded life saving AIDS treatment in Durban, South Africa, expanded a clinic in Mombasa, Kenya and now WE-ACTx in Rwanda. KCA's aim is to provide access to ARV treatment to as many people as possible as quickly as possible as well as helping to fund clinicians, health professionals and expand clinic sites so that they can include ARV treatment programs.

WE-ACTx is a global initiative that was started in the fall of 2003 by a small group of US-based activists, physicians and scientists. Their mission is to help HIV-positive women's and girl's groups gain access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, via existing or new programs, or by helping them to start NGO-based treatment programs. Their work began in Rwanda following an urgent plea from a group of genocide rape survivors. After nearly a decade of living with HIV, a growing number of these women were dying due to lack of treatment. Most are destitute widows who have lost their entire families -- spouses, children, relatives.

"This support has generated great excitement here among the WE-ACTx Rwandan staff, as well as in our partner NGO, Icyuzuzo, and the Rwandan government AIDS leadership," said Kathryn Anastos, Co-Executive Director, Clinical and Scientific Programs, and WE-ACTx Principal Investigator. "We will be able to develop very quickly a comprehensive model of HIV family-centered services, which will include VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) and PMTCT (prevention of mother to child transmission), as well as comprehensive care for HIV infected women and children. This is the scope and quality of care that should be provided everywhere. Icyuzuzo has until recently been providing mostly palliative care to its HIV infected clients, in other words, helping people die with dignity. Judith Mukagakwaya, director of Icyuzuzo, and her staff, are deeply grateful for funding that will now allow them to help their clients live and flourish."

"We are honored to support this incredible initiative," said Leigh Blake, President and CEO of Keep A Child Alive. "Rwanda has made it through the darkest times and needs all of our commitment for the future. Access to treatment is critical. The Rwandan Government is supplying ARV's to the people but the infrastructure costs are hard to find, though very necessary to successful treatment programs."

"I will never forget the day when Oprah handed me the check for $250,000," says KCA Ambassador Alicia Keys. "It was a complete surprise. KCA is using it to demonstrate what can be done in resource poor settings, showing that treatment is possible and should be a human right for ALL people with AIDS."

For more information or to make a donation please go the links provided.

Links: http://www.keepachildalive.org/http://www.oprah.com/http://www.we-actx.org/

Source: Keep A Child Alive

CONTACT: Elizabeth Santiso, Director of Communications of Keep A Child Alive, +1-718-965-1111, Elizabeth@keepachildalive.org

Web site: http://www.keepachildalive.org/ http://www.oprah.com/ http://www.we-actx.org/

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