Hope for Africa's HIV positive babies

HIV positive and negative children live together

An orphanage in Kenya is making many of the HIV positive babies in their care revert to being HIV negative.

"What we are doing is small, but you have to start somewhere"

Clive Beckenham

Working at their New Life Home for HIV positive and abandoned babies in Nairobi, British Missionaries, Clive and Mary Beckenham, told BBC World Service, how nutrition and love have helped to restore the children to good health.

"These children deserve the best," explained Clive.

"They didn't ask to be born like this and we have to stand by these children and give them an opportunity."

Commitment

Mother to child transmission of HIV/Aids is now one the leading causes of death amongst children under five across Africa.

Since there are few facilities and resources to care for them, often HIV positive babies are merely left to die, abandoned or uncared for.

Good hygiene has contributed to the project's success

In 1994 Clive and Mary Beckenham started the New Life Home for HIV positive and abandoned babies in Nairobi.

The project grew and evolved out of their personal experiences of caring for an HIV positive baby and has progressed due to the couple's unfaltering commitment.

"When we first started eight years ago, people said, "why are you wasting your time with these children they are going to die anyway?" Clive explained to the Everywoman programme.

"We said, "Are they? Who said so?"

Nutrition

The couple conceded that initially they thought that they would be nursing the children to a comfortable death, but 90% of the HIV positive babies that they have looked after have turned sero-positive and gone on to live healthy, normal lives.

"We opened the home expecting the children to die," Mary reflected.

30 nurses and health-care staff work at the home

"We thought if just one or two turned negative it was still worth it and the ones that died would die in dignity and would have been loved and cared for."

Out of a total of 350 babies that the Beckenham's have cared for, only 27 have died.

The medical explanation for this is that when a baby is born, it carries the mother's antibodies, so if the mother is HIV positive, the baby will also test positive.

When the baby's own anti-bodies kick in at around a year to 18 months, many revert to being negative.

The majority of HIV babies don't die because they're positive, but because their immune systems have been further weakened by other diseases, poor hygiene and malnourishment.

"I think a lot has to do with nutrition," explained Mary.

"We put the babies on formulas straight away and we also give them carrot juice.

We don't give any meat or fish, we just give fruit. They seem to thrive on that."

Determination

For those children who do not recover, the home also offers intensive care and in some cases drug therapy.

Funded by voluntary contributions such care remains a constant financial struggle, but the couple remain resolute in their conviction to help the abandoned and seriously ill children.

Some two-thirds of people with HIV and Aids live in Africa.

In Uganda alone, there an estimated 1.9 million Aids orphans - and that figure is set to double within the next few years.

Recognising the enormity of the problem, the Beckenham's remain undeterred.

"I know what we are doing is so small," admitted Clive, "but someone has to start somewhere.

One of the major things that we have learnt is that we, as human beings, can make a difference."