the hard stuff

One particular event happened this week that I cannot forget.  A seventeen-year-old beautiful girl named Faith.*  Faith is in the final stages of life as a result of suffering from HIV-AIDS.  Unfortunately this is a common occurrence in Liberia, but not for reasons that you may think.

When the Liberian civil crisis was going on, rebels felt the freedom to rape and gang rape women of all ages in Liberia.  The result of that has been a huge increase of HIV-AIDS.  With little or no education on HIV-AIDS, it continued to spread to all ages.

But Faith's story is a bit different.

Faith was also a victim.  Not a victim of rape, thankfully, like so many Liberian women are, but a victim of a poor health system.

Faith's mom passed away in 2005 from a common disease in Liberia.  A few short years later, Faith came down with malaria.  She went to the hospital for treatment, where the health staff told her she was short of blood (a common problem in Liberia- I've never heard of this problem before, but I'm not a medical person.. still makes no sense to me at all).  As a result, she needed to have a blood transfusion.

The blood that she received was HIV positive.

This beautiful 17 year old was completely innocent.  And now she is toothpick thin, giving all of her energy to staying healthy and continuing to go to school.  Yet, she still has a big, toothy grin on her face.

What can we do at this point for Faith? Our staff continue to visit her weekly, making sure that she is taking her meds, and getting the nutrients she needs.  When I was visiting with her, our HIV/AIDS program manager asked her what her favorite meal was.  "Fufu!" was her excited answer.  Love reached into his pocket and handed over enough money for her to enjoy fufu every day for the next week.  We can't take away the disease that she has contracted, but we can do little things like making sure she is eating well with the proper nutrients.  We can continue to be Jesus to her.

Please pray for our HIV/AIDS staff who deal with difficult situations like this daily.  Please pray for Faith as she fights this awful disease.  Pray also that she can continue to be a light to the other children she encounters who are also sick.


*Name has been changed to protect her identity.