The Peanut Butter Project

The Peanut Butter Project distributes a 1-kg tub of peanut butter to every malnourished HIV-positive child age 1-17 at every medical visit at The Baylor Pediatric HIV ClinicClinics in Leribe and Qacha’s Nek, Lesotho.  38% of young children in Lesotho suffer stunted growth from chronic malnutrition.  Among HIV-positive children the rate of stunting is even higher.  Peanut butter is a simple solution—a high protein, locally available food which requires no cooking or preparation.

At the Baylor Pediatric Clinic in Lesotho, they see a constant stream of HIV-positive kids, from newborns to teenagers.  Many of them are AIDS orphans, living with an elderly grandmother or a teenage sibling who’s trying to hold the family together.  They do the best they can, surviving on little or no income.

Almost half of all children under 5 in Lesotho are growth stunted from chronic malnutrition.  Among HIV-positive kids, growth stunting is even worse, making children look 3-4 years younger than their actual age, simply because they never get enough to eat.

Among HIV positive kids, malnutrition causes increased susceptibility to infections, diarrhea, and tuberculosis.  And their HIV medicines are better tolerated when taken with food.

And how does malnutrition affect brain development? How much potential is lost every year because the children aren’t getting enough protein to feed their brains?

I’m tired of seeing 8-year-olds who look 5.

I know that we can’t save everybody, that we can’t solve the problem of poverty and malnutrition in Southern Africa.  But surely we can do something.

The Peanut Butter Project is an initiative to give a 1 kg. (2.2 lb) tub of peanut butter to every malnourished HIV-positive child at every doctor’s visit at The Baylor Pediatric HIV Clinics in Leribe and Qacha’s Nek.  It’s protein for a month.  It doesn’t need refrigeration.  It doesn’t require cooking.  And if they share it with their siblings, so what?  HIV-negative kids deserve to eat, too.

Peanut butter is the primary ingredient in Plumpynut, the medical supplement given to acutely malnourished children all over Africa.  But why not reverse malnutrition before it becomes that severe, before it stunts growth and slows brain development?

The Peanut Butter Project is a simple, low-cost intervention that can make a real impact for the children at The Baylor Pediatric HIV Clinics.  I want these kids to have enough to eat.  Will you help?

The Mamelo Primary School Emergency Fund for Orphans

The Mamelo Primary School was established to serve orphans and HIV-positive children who, due to stigma, were rejected by ordinary schools.  The School’s Emergency Fund for Orphans gives teachers and the principal the ability to meet the basic needs of the school’s 210 orphaned students, whether it is buying a child shoes, a jacket in winter, or
medicine.  In addition, the Fund will enable the school to expand their free lunch program to provide free breakfasts for children in need.

The teachers at Mamello Primary School are intensely dedicated to their students. They teach under conditions we cannot even imagine. Crowded classrooms. No desks. No heat in winter. No running water. Latrines out back.

But that’s not what upsets them.

What makes them cry inside are the students who come to school without coats in winter. The students who can’t learn because of stomach aches, from hunger. The students who keep getting sick, but have no money for medicine.

Makeletso Amelia Masoebe founded the school in 2007, to serve orphans and HIV-positive children stigmatized by regular schools. Now over 300 students from 14 villages learn there. 210 are orphans.

Students from the adjoining Phelisonang Handicapped Village also attend the school, in fully integrated classrooms.

Mamello Primary School provides the children with free lunches and a free K-7 education. Since we got involved, they’ve also been able to feed the poorest children free school breakfasts!  For some students, the food they get at school is their only food for the day.

The orphans’ needs are great.

Sometimes a teacher will take money from her own tiny salary to buy a child shoes. Or Principal Makeletso will “borrow” money from the funds for books and classroom supplies to provide a winter coat for a child.

Last year, the school was given 4 pigs—2 males and 2 females. The children built the pigpen themselves. And every day they feed the pigs. Come Spring, they hope there will be piglets to sell. Maybe then there will be enough money for essentials.

But for now, the school needs our Emergency Fund.

That’s where you come in.

AIDS Orphan Care started an Emergency Fund for Orphans at the Mamello Primary School to allow teachers to meet an orphan’s immediate needs—clothing, shoes, winter coats, school supplies, and emergency food supplies.

Another need is health care. Principal Makeletso says, “We make sure that the children with HIV go to the doctor each and every month.” The school provides transportation. The government provides free HIV care and medicines. So the Emergency Fund for Orphans will cover other medicines, X-rays to diagnose tuberculosis, and hospitalization when needed.

The students at Mamello Primary School overcome great odds every day to attend school. And the teachers care for them like their own children.

With your help, they can do even more.

Stories from Lesotho

At 2, Mpho lost her parents.

At 3, she was diagnosed with HIV.

By 4, she could have been homeless…

Mpho lives in Lesotho, Southern Africa, where 1 in 4 adults has HIV.  A whole generation of parents has died of HIV/AIDS, leaving more than 100,000 orphans.

After her parents died of AIDS, Mpho went to live with her aunt.  The aunt, knowing what killed Mpho’s parents, took the child to be tested for HIV.

When Mpho tested HIV-positive, her aunt made her sleep in a shed outside.  She wouldn’t let her eat with the rest of the family.

Mpho was 3 years old.

Finally, a granny in her village saw what was happening.  Although she wasn’t related to Mpho and had no money to raise her, the granny knew she could love Mpho.  And that alone would improve the child’s life.

Granny Tumelo took Mpho in and they have lived together ever since.  Granny Tumelo shares the little food she has.  She travels long distances every month to bring Mpho to the HIV clinic.  And next year, she hopes to find enough money for a school uniform so Mpho can start first grade.

Granny Tumelo has taken Mpho into her heart.  You can see it in the way they beam at each other.  In the way Mpho trusts adults now.  In Mpho’s willingness to take bitter HIV medicines, if her granny gives them to her.

Unfortunately, they can’t eat love.  Granny Tumelo is too old to work, and has no income at all.  An early frost killed the last few onions and tomatoes in her small garden.  She and Mpho eat boiled corn meal, the cheapest food, for every meal.

You can see from Mpho’s small frame that she is not getting enough to eat.  Now 6, she looks 4.

Granny Tumelo applied for government food assistance for Mpho, who should be eligible,as an orphan.  After many visits to the Social Welfare Office, and realms of paperwork, they were put on the waiting list.  That was 3 months ago.  They’re still waiting.  There simply isn’t enough food for all the orphans in Lesotho.

At the last doctor’s visit, Granny Tumelo swallowed her pride and asked for help.  She told me the story of taking in Mpho—not to brag, but simply to emphasize that she was asking for the child’s sake, not her own.

I slipped them some money.  Maybe enough for food for a month.  We all hope the food from Social Welfare will come through before the money runs out.  I worry about who will help them now that I’ve returned to the United States.

AIDS Orphan Care was founded to help orphans like Mpho and her granny.  To help with food support until the government food aid kicks in.  To buy a school uniform and shoes, so Mpho can attend school.

For $1 a day, you could sponsor Mpho.  Send her to school.  Help her grow, so one day she’ll look her age.  Pay for her trips to the HIV clinic.  For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can change her life.

Granny Tumelo has already done her part.  What about you?