The Associated Press - Sun, 11 Dec 1994

He's raising his sisters' six children in a one-bedroom apartment in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. One sister died of AIDS and the other may soon follow.

Martinez tried to put his troubles aside Sunday at a Christmas party for 103 children whose parents, many of them poor and most women raising children alone, are dying of AIDS.

"This party is a nice break," said Martinez, a 31-year-old who looks more like the brother than the guardian of his nephew and five nieces.

"The gifts, the entertainment. We have sadness, but being here keeps everyone from thinking about it for awhile."

It was the second annual party for AIDS families served by Selfhelp, a non-profit agency founded by Holocaust survivors.

Selfhelp provides home-care workers to keep a family together as long as possible by helping parents do laundry, cook and run errands. The agency also helps find guardians to raise the children when their mothers die.

"It's beautiful to come and see all this," Nelida Burgos, a 32-year-old mother of three, said at the party. "You're so happy you forget you are sick. And that's nice for the holidays."

Martinez, like some of the other families, has a double burden -- children who are HIV positive. Martinez's nephew, 3 1/2-year-old Michael, was born with the virus. The boy's mother, who died in January, was infected with the disease through sexual contact, he said.

Many of the home-care workers were on hand Sunday to chase after children while sick parents relaxed. There was a sing-along, a clown performing magic tricks, and Santa Claus, of course.

Martinez's nephew and nieces clambered onto Santa's lap, first for a picture, then to get presents.

Six-year-old Wendy Vasquez hopped around in disbelief after she opened her gift and found a Barbie doll in a hot-pink bikini.

"I always wanted one," she said breathlessly.

Her sister, 10-year-old Kimberly, got a plastic pink-and-purple cosmetic box. "I already have one at home," she said, but with a smile and not a hint of disappointment.

"It's very generous of the people to go to all this trouble for our family," the youngster said.

Copyright (c) 1994 - The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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Copyright © 1994 - Associated Press. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the AP Permissions Desk.

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