The Associated Press; Monday, December 1, 1997; 7:16 a.m. EST
Karin Davies, Associated Press Writer

His mother, alone and dying of AIDS, had buried him alive because she assumed her son would not live. Rescued by a policeman, Joseph joined 49 other youngsters at Nyumbani, or "home" in Swahili.

Three months later, Joseph sucks gustily on a bottle and laughs when tickled.

Joseph is just one of 7.8 million children living in sub-Saharan Africa who are orphans because of AIDS, according to figures released by the United Nations to mark World AIDS Day today.

Many inherited the immune-stripping disease from their mothers, including at least 530,000 African children born this year -- 90 percent of the world total.

Often those children are abandoned, the fate of an estimated 150,000 in Kenya.

Dr. Angelo D'Agostino was upset that some of those children were dying alone along the potholed streets of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, or in a poorly run government hospital.

In 1992, he opened Nyumbani, in a lush suburb 10 miles southwest Nairobi.

Nyumbani is a noisy, cheerful place where 50 youngsters, from infants to a 15-year-old, thrive on a recipe of the best nutritional, medical, psychiatric and spiritual care, plus lots of love.

The youngsters live in groups of five to nine in cottages, looked after by live-in surrogate mothers. Walls are brightly decorated with handmade quilts. Older children climb into bunk beds at night, while babies have cribs.

They play hide-and-seek beneath tot-sized T-shirts and pants fluttering dry on clotheslines, ride bicycles in a rain-muddied yard, and study in a new school.

Thanks to good care, the children are fairly healthy despite their fragile immune systems. Raspy coughs are common, and some children are troubled by skin problems -- open sores or disfiguring warts.

As children get older, they begin to ask what it means to be HIV-positive, said Sister Mary Owen.

She recalled a 12-year-old whose AIDS-infected friend died. Aware that he too had the disease, the boy asked if he was going to die.

"I answered him truthfully -- that he had a very serious illness, and his life might be limited, but no one could know by how much," the sister said.

Protus Lumiti, program director, said he has learned to hem in his grief. "The children look at me. If I am strong, they will be strong. But if I am brooding, they will, too," he said.

Behind the cement-block school, beyond a garden crowded with carrots and spinach, is a growing cemetery. Six small crosses mark graves -- the youngest, a girl, lived for just 10 months. The oldest, a boy, died months short of his 10th birthday.

Funerals are conducted in a converted barn, where the youngest children spend most of their time.

"We say goodbye. They are sad, but they understand that their friend will be with Jesus -- he will be happy and he won't be sick anymore," said D'Agostino, a Jesuit priest and a surgeon from Providence, R.I.

At a religious service in the school Sunday, D'Agostino acknowledged World AIDS Day, and prayed with the children for all the HIV-positive people in the world, and for the researchers seeking remedies.

The children then recited lessons learned that week:

"We should try to correct adults in a polite way," said John Mwange, 7.

"If one of us is sick, we try to help," said Jane Claire, 9. "Love one another," added Irene Wajiri, 9.

It costs about $10,000 a month to run the home, money collected from small donations. D'Agostino scowls at people and agencies willing to give millions to protect Africa's wildlife, but nothing to care for its children.

Sometimes, a child gets lucky.

Children born to women with AIDS test positive at birth because they are filled with their mother's antibodies. But one out of four babies at the orphanage has later proved to be HIV-free.

D'Agostino is hoping baby Joseph will be among the lucky, and can be placed in an adoptive home. But if Joseph, too, is HIV-infected, he will have a place in D'Agostino's heart and home.

AIDS is threatening children worldwide:

--In New York, World AIDS Day will be observed with a campaign to encourage teen-agers to educate other young people about sex and AIDS.

--In China, children and teen-agers make up 10 percent of those infected with the AIDS virus.

--In India, conservatives have successfully opposed having comprehensive AIDS education in schools. India has more HIV cases than any other country in the world, according to the United Nations.

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For more information about Nyumbani, its website is at www.nyumbani.com. Or write to D'Agostino at P.O. Box 21399, Nairobi, Kenya.

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