Miami Herald - Sunday, December 30, 1990
Liese Klein, Herald Staff Writer

"Those two are HIV-positive," said Teresa Herrmann, coordinator of the Kids In Distress Infant & Toddler Emergency Shelter (KITES) in Wilton Manors.

She says it matter-of-factly, without emotion, because at the KITE shelter, children like Nicky, 22 months, and Annamarita, 20 months, are the norm.

KITES was set up a year ago to serve children younger than 5 who are too sick to be cared for at home or by foster parents.

Now the future of the KITES program, run by Kids In Distress for the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, is uncertain. The program costs more than $1 million a year for a facility with only 10 beds. So when budget pressure prompted HRS to begin slashing programs, KITES was high on the list.

Some last-minute lobbying has rescued the program until June 30, HRS officials say, but then the funding may be cut altogether.

"We're trying to protect it," said Maureen Borland, HRS deputy district administrator. "It's a program that we feel is really necessary."

"These kids are real difficult to find placements for," Borland said. "They were being cared for in foster homes, but we didn't have enough of them."

The program originally was set up to serve drug- and AIDS-exposed children, but children with birth defects and chronic illness now are admitted.

Unlike a foster home or traditional shelter, kids at KITES are given intensive daily medical treatment. A team of specialists visits on a weekly basis, and therapy is constant.

The kids are all referred by HRS, and many are wards of the state.

An unfortunate few arrive at the shelter like Nicky, the AIDS-infected child in the blue-and-white dress. Nicky was found on a front lawn in Fort Lauderdale. Then 20 months, she was abandoned with her infant sister.

Both are HIV-positive. Little Rebecca, now 11 months, also suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

Nicky and her sister were obviously very attached, said KITES staff members. When Nicky first got to the KITE shelter, she often could be found next to the cribs of the infants, trying to comfort them and stop their crying.

Many sick children have improved markedly on developmental tests after a stay at the shelter.

Some have even improved to 100 percent of the norm despite serious handicaps, Herrmann said.

Cassie, rolling in her playsuit in an immaculate crib, is a KITES success story. She was born with spina bifida, a birth defect that can paralyze its young victims.

Cassie was diagnosed before birth, treated aggressively and is now up to normal developmental level.

Taken out of her crib, she rolls happily on a mat and rattles a set of plastic keys.

"They come in with all of these problems," Herrmann said. "But they make up for it."

CAPTION: PHOTO child in walker at Kids in Distress Shelter
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