Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 16 April 2003
Marko Kokic in Guatemala City
The playground at San Jose Children's Home is like any other. But the children are different.
This refuge near Guatemala City is home to twenty abandoned children living with HIV/AIDS. Carolina, its youngest resident is only two months old. On a wall hang photos of those who have already passed away.
Four years ago, the children's home approached the Guatemalan Red Cross for assistance. A group of eight Red Cross volunteers known as Las Damas Volontarias responded. They now bring food, clothing, blankets, hygiene prodicts, toys and most importantly, as they like to say, love.
Most of the children are at the San Jose Home because their families do not understand the disease. "Some think that you can contract AIDS by touching someone who is infected," says one of the Damas, Elinda Sevilla.
The Red Cross volunteers hope to dispel these misconceptions by talking to the wider public. They want to see more information disseminated in schools. "We need to learn to protect ourselves from HIV because it affects not just us but the people we love, even our children," Elinda says.
According to UNAIDS, the United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS, the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in Guatemala is one per cent or 67,000 individuals. Of these, 4,800 are children and young people are under the age of 15. A combination of unequal socioeconomic development and high population mobility is driving the spread of HIV in the region.
Although the home's children have access to anti-retroviral drugs, the price of treatment remains over US$ 1,000 per month. In Latin America, HIV/AIDS is largely a disease of the poor, yet the most vulnerable are the least likely to afford medication. Stigma, denial and a lack of information threaten to further spread the virus.
"By keeping the price of drugs high the pharmaceutical companies are condemning those already infected," says a Dama Voluntaria, Marcelina Jesus de Chacon.
The Guatemalan Red Cross continues to address HIV/AIDS by focusing on young people - the country's future and by working to reduce HIV/AIDS-related stigma. "In our country people still associate HIV/AIDS with homosexuality and prostitution," says the national Youth Coordinator, Jorge Gil. "Our youth volunteers are campaigning to inform their peers that without protection everyone is vulnerable.
Having been born with few of the advantages that many take for granted, the children of the San Jose Children's Home continue to smile, to laugh and play - in no small part because of the continued love and care from people like Las Damas Volontarias.
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