US played role fighting pandemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis

“In Haiti and beyond, we’ve made progress fighting pandemics for 20 years. We must keep at it.”

Miami Herald

by David Adams

It’s remarkable to see the progress the world has made on longstanding pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, and America’s heart and helping hand, in collaboration with local caregivers, have clearly played an important role in that success story.

Take Haiti, for example. When I first began working there as the director of the USAID Mission to Haiti in 2001, HIV/AIDS was endemic and affecting many more people than it does today. The statistics prove this out.

In 2002, HIV/AIDS had double the number of cases it has now. Sadly, more than 11,000 people died of HIV in 2002, while fewer than 3,000 died in 2019.

SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS

In 2020, more than 70 percent of people living with HIV in Haiti were on treatment. That number can and should go up, but the progress that has already been made is significant.

Since that time in Haiti with the USAID Mission, I became the vice president for missions with Cross Catholic Outreach (CCO), and have become familiar with many young people in Haiti and elsewhere who were stricken with HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, but managed to survive and thrive through healthcare, education and a chance to be reintegrated into society.

Moise is a good example. I met him when he was being helped by Maison Arc en Ciel (MAEC), also known as Rainbow House. Moise had been orphaned at age 11 during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and as an HIV-positive child, he faced a lot of challenges.

For example, earlier in his life, Moise had moved in with relatives as a restavec (children sent by poor Haitian parents to be a domestic servant) and as a result, he had been denied an education and frequently beaten.

In fact, in 2013, he had to be hospitalized due to a coma. After his recovery, Moise was referred by the government to the Rainbow House, a model Haitian nonprofit for children affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS. There, the staff encouraged Moise to develop his aptitude for animal husbandry and, aided by vocational education and treatment for AIDS, he was able to apply his talents to poultry production and now lives independently.

Given this organization’s successes, it’s been good to see that the Rainbow House has been supported by USAID and CCO, as well as by funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the U.S. President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)….

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David Adams is the Vice President of Missions at Cross Catholic Outreach in Boca Raton and Pompano Beach