In a small village in Ethiopia, where physician Lolit Largosa is waging skirmishes against AIDS, girls as young as five are taught the realities of the disease. "Our target group is 5 to 11 years old, when they are not yet sexually active," said Largosa, who was in Salt Lake City recently to meet with Utahns who are sponsoring girls through the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund. Founded by Norm Perdue a year ago, the fund currently pays for the education of 129 girls. Largosa is planning a program to teach young girls to become AIDS peer educators.

Largosa runs a maternal and child clinic in the village of Kersa Elala and also runs health education classes at the Seventh-Day Adventist School there. The fund sponsors girls at the village school and at a school in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. "I can treat their sicknesses, but only education can change their lifestyle," said Largosa. In the case of HIV/AIDS, she said, education is particularly important because the medicines to treat it aren't readily available in places like Ethiopia.

"Educate the women and you will educate the nation," said Largosa. Studies show, she said, that when women are educated, their children tend to be healthier. In rural southern Ethiopia, only 30 percent of girls attend school, about half the number of boys who attend.

The most recent statistics cite a prevalence of 12 percent for HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, but in the district hospital in Largosa's area, she said, HIV/AIDS patients now occupy half the beds. Children of Ethiopia Education Fund founder Perdue will return to Kersa Elala, where his wife runs the clinic while Largosa is taking continuing education classes in the United States. On his last visit to Ethiopia, Perdue said, he was barraged daily by parents begging for him to find sponsors for their daughter's education.

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