About KCA

The Beginning

The seed of Keep a Child Alive was sown in Kenya in 2002. Royalties from Leigh Blake’s previous fundraiser, Red Hot & Blue, built the AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic in Mombasa. A woman named Anne walked in to the clinic, desperate to obtain the anti-retroviral drugs her three-year-old son Brine needed to survive. At the time the medication’s high cost was an impossible dream for most Africans to afford, and Leigh was so moved by this woman and her courage that she decided to pay for them.

Word of the children’s desperate need for medication spread among Leigh’s friends and colleagues, and soon they were offering to do the same. Alicia Keys passion for the issue drove her to become our first Global Ambassador.

What started as a very personal incident between two mothers has become a tremendous initiative for change. With over 4000 children and family members on ARV treatment, over 250,000 people under our care, three orphanages receiving funding, and major clinic sites in expansion, Keep a Child Alive is making a direct impact in the lives of so many who need help.

MISSIONS 

There is a profound difference between living and life.

Living may extend time for another day.

But life is far more than sleeping and waking.

Life is more than merely existing.

And, although it would be easier, life cannot be bought in a pill.

That is why Keep A Child Alive buys more than just the pills needed to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

It buys the essential nutrition, shelter, support and education to help ensure those pills are taken properly and effectively.

It buys the things we all take for granted, but that make all the difference. A bed. A roof. A ride. A book. A smile.

KCA offers children, their families and entire communities a shoulder to lean on and a heart that beats for them.

Because KCA believes we can do something far bigger and better than buy the ability to live.

We can buy the dignity that is life.

We can buy compassion.

Buy love.

Buy the cure.

Buy life.

Because the more you buy, the more you save.

KEEP A CHILD ALIVE.

Treatment

Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has transformed the lives of people with AIDS in the West, returning them from sickness to health. But only 33% of the 10 million people who so desperately need treatment, have access to it. When children are infected, 50% die before the age of 2 and 80% die before the age of 5.

Care

Keep a Child Alive provides first class AIDS care through doctors, nutrition, testing, transportation, and treatment for opportunistic infections, which are all necessary for anti-retroviral treatment to be successful. KCA also provides the care and support to keep orphaned and abandoned children safe.

Orphans

16.6 million children have lost their parents to AIDS. These children will face enormous risks in their struggle to stay alive. They will often be forced into sexual exploitation or enrolled as child soldiers. Keep a Child Alive supports the children’s extended family caregivers, and builds and sustains orphanages to keep the most vulnerable children out of harm's way. 

Awareness 

Through documentary films and ground-breaking media campaigns, Keep a Child Alive directly engages the global public in the fight against AIDS. We actively work to educate people about the emergency issues of AIDS in Africa and India in an effort to re-invent the way they perceive their role in being part of the solution. 

 

Source : http://keepachildalive.org/