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World AIDS Day 2008

A Journey of Hope -- Inspiring Stories of Courage and Unconditional Love

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Sheridan & Shane | Stacey | Jonathan | John | Lesley | Joshua

The images and text on this page are reprinted with permission. They are from a collection of photographs by Katja Heinemann of HIV-affected and infected children who attended Camp Heartland, with reflections from the camp's director, Neil Willenson. The book is called "A Journey of Hope -- Inspiring Stories of Courage and Unconditional Love."

Their stories will shock and move you. Fortunately, because of near universal testing of pregnant women in the U.S., fewer children are born with HIV than ever before. However, with the growing pandemic among women, particularly women of color, many children now have parents struggling with HIV. We also cannot forget that, globally, the pandemic has orphaned 15 million children and less than 2 percent of HIV-positive children in need of treatment are receiving it.


John
JOHN

I am 12. And I have AIDS. My little baby sister, she's only 3, has AIDS. (She's not my real sister, she's my foster sister.) Nobody else in the family I live with has it, but my real parents did. I don't know if my dad has it because I'm not living with him.

I'm not supposed to tell (in school) because if they find out they'll send me somewhere else. They'll tell somebody, like the president or somebody, and he'll contact somebody and they'll send me away (to a different school) and a different family. 'Cause I can't go back to my parents. But not because of AIDS. First when I was born, I don't know why but they said my real mom threw me in a garbage can, and the police heard me crying in the can and got me out and took me to my auntie's. I don't know where my mom was, and then my auntie called somebody 'cause she was getting really sick and she couldn't take care of us anymore, my brothers and sisters anymore. We all got put in different homes, foster care. 'Cause she was really sick from AIDS, too.They sent me away to a foster home, and when I got there I didn't wanna be there.

I might get adopted if I can't go back to my real parents.

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