Ariel Children See a Long Life Ahead of Them

Today is Ariel Club Day at Rwashamaire Health Centre IV in Southwest Uganda. Christine, 9, woke up excited, knowing that she would come to the clinic to see her friends, to drum, and to play games. Christine, like all of the children in the Ariel Club, is living with HIV. While Christine can’t wait to see her Ariel friends, her mother, Mary, looks forward to Christine’s health check-up and refilling Christine’s antiretroviral (ARV) prescription so that she can remain healthy and active.

The Ariel Club is sponsored by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and is named for Elizabeth Glaser’s daughter, who died from an AIDS-related illness. The club provides the children an opportunity to form friendships with other children who can relate to any difficulties they encounter living with HIV—and can encourage them to stay on treatment. Along with medication and counseling, the health center provides the children and their caregivers with lunch and money for transportation to and from the clinic.

Mary remembers the bad days before Christine was diagnosed with HIV. She was constantly, sick and was not gaining weight as she should. Mary also felt weak and found herself frequently bedridden with mysterious illnesses. She thought that both of them would surely die before Christine reached the age of 5. But a friend told her that mother and daughter seemed to be suffering with slim, the local term for AIDS, and urged her to get tested for HIV. Both tested positive.

“By the time I knew that she was HIV-positive, Christine had had many illnesses,” says Mary.

The club provides the children an opportunity to form friendships with other children who they can relate to, and can encourage them to stay on treatment.

“But when she was put on care, she started improving almost immediately. She gained weight, and she became energetic. Now she is doing well.”

Christine has a special relationship with the health workers who saved her life and says that she wants to become a nurse when she grows up so that she can help other kids be healthy.

Health care is a common aspiration for these children. Elson, 8, hopes to be a doctor one day—or a football player. He says that the counseling that he gets from the Ariel Club gives him hope that he can follow his dreams.

Some of the caregivers are grandparents who watched the death of their children from AIDS-related causes and are now raising their grandchildren. Edgar’s grandmother, Elizabeth, remembers the heartache of watching her daughter and son-in-law die because they had not received the HIV diagnosis early enough to seek treatment. She is committed to ensuring that Edgar, 9, grows up healthy and has a long life.

“Edgar’s mother died when he was only 9 months old,” says Elizabeth. “Then he became sick. I went to the village looking for medicinal herbs. I gave them to my grandchild, but his health did not improve. Finally, I brought him to the health center, where he was tested positive for HIV.

“After three months on treatment, he got fat,” Elizabeth says with a smile. “He takes his medicine every day, and he has never gotten sick again. Now Edgar has a good life.”

As the children play, laugh, and eat, it is hard to believe that some of them nearly died not so long ago.

“ARVs have brought my Christine back to life,” says Mary.