Gift of Hope

After more than three decades of working in Africa, Hugh and Marty Downey are no strangers to suffering. They have treated famine victims in Sudan and massacre survivors in Eritrea. But despite all the misery that the American couple has seen, they can't get used to one sound they hear with growing frequency in Kenya. "Off in a corner of the village, people are wailing," said Hugh. "You know someone has died."

More often than not, the cause of death is AIDS. This East African nation is a hot spot of an epidemic that has swept the continent during the past 20 years, killing some 20 million men, women and children and leaving more than 12 million orphans. An estimated one out of seven adult Kenyans is infected with HIV. As a result, Hugh and Marty are motivated to leave their modest brick home in Arvada, Colo., twice a year to spend a few weeks at Lake Victoria. They run the Lalmba Association, a relief agency whose small size -- fewer than 200 volunteer doctors and project directors and a handful of low-wage local employees -- belies its grand mission. "Lalmba means 'place of hope'" said Hugh. "That's what we're about. We create hope." Despite Lalmba's efforts, "people are dying in the prime of life," lamented Wanda , who, with husband Dave, oversees Lalmba's Kenyan branch.

The organization concentrates increasingly on rescuing HIV/AIDS orphans. In March, the Downeys launched a program that sends social workers to care for more than 300 AIDS orphans in bush villages, where they might otherwise be forced to fend for themselves. Since 1997 they have operated a home for the neediest of those children in the lakeside town of Ongoro. When one of its 24 young residents left to enter boarding school recently, 67 applied for his place at the orphanage. Around here, said Dave, the Ongoro orphans are seen as the "elite kids."

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