Web Site Grants Holiday Wishes for Children With HIV/AIDS

Before graduating from Rutgers University-Newark in 1997 and becoming an accountant, Shimmy Mehta was surprised in working with the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children that many infected children had unmet non-medical needs.

"A lot of the things that the care centers told me that they needed weren't real medical in nature, they were more for the benefit of children in the way of toys or games," Mehta said. "Things that would help give these children an actual childhood because living with HIV/AIDS, a lot of them had to grow up so much faster than they really should."

In 1999, Mehta launched the Angelwish.org Web site to help send toys and games to the children. Seven years later, the nonprofit partners with more than 112 HIV/AIDS Care Centers and programs across the world. More than 10,000 donations have been made through the site, he said. Just before Christmas, Angelwish.org had 25,000 items to distribute to care centers and hospitals, Mehta added.

Donors who use Angelwish.org can opt for which child to help and what gift to give. The site links to a wish list on Amazon.com that identifies the children's ages and desired items. Donors select which items to send, and the gifts are shipped to the organizations where children receive their care.

For people with busy schedules, "this is a way to sort of keep their foot in the door and do something nice, something that fits their limited time, that's still meaningful," said Mehta. Businesses are getting involved as well. Fidelity Investments offices in New Jersey and New York collected more than 600 toys and granted 235 online wishes this year, said Maria Nieves, a company spokesperson.

Back to other news for December 27, 2006