I got this letter today from AHOPE.

"March 4, 2004

Dear Sponsors and Donors,

There have been some big changes in the AHOPE for Children programs in the past few weeks.

AHOPE for Children was originally set up to provide funding for the ENAT HIV Children's Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Because of extensive publicity, including Melissa Greene's wonderful articles in the New York Times and Reader's Digest, a great deal of funding has been provided for ENAT from donors all over the world in addition to the support from AHOPE for Children. ENAT is also the "poster child" program for Ethiopian government officials and other notables to take visitors from abroad. There are no plans for ENAT to expand beyond the two present homes for about 70 children. The ENAT administrator is no longer willing to provide the reports on finances and on the children that are required by AHOPE for Children to be accountable to our donors, so we are ending our financial support for ENAT HIV Children's Center, confident that the ENAT program can continue without us.

The work of AHOPE for Children will continue with new projects, new partners. The need is desperate. Here are some of the grim statistics that we face, one child at a time: In Addis, it is estimated that one in every six adults is infected with HIV. In some parts of the country the incidence is higher. A similar proportion of children orphaned by AIDS is infected. In 1999 alone, there were 120,000 children who became infected with HIV. There are uncounted numbers of orphans fending for themselves in the streets, sleeping in alleys, begging for help of any kind. These numbers are growing.

We are presently expanding our prgram to work alongside other charities in order to provide help for many more orphans. Our new programs include working with the Blue Nile Children's Organization in Ethiopia to provide support for AIDS orphans now in foster care, raising funds for building two children's homes (one for healthy, one for infected children) and a vocational school in Bahir Dar (an impoverished area of Ethiopia with a very high incidence of AIDS), and helping fund other charities that provide support, including school fees and medical care, for orphans living in various situations including small informal children's homes established by kindly neighbors who are taking in orphans of their deceased local friends. Some children are living with impoverished extended family members who could not feed them, much less provide schooling, without help. Given the incidence of infection within the population, we know that many of these children are likely to be HIV positive. Until we have suitable alternative living situations for the orphans that do test positive, we are not having them tested, because if they test positive, it is more than likely they will be rejected by those with whom they are living. Even relatives are often reluctant to keep an infected child.

In the midst of this terrible situation is some promising news. Help is on its way in the form of a new clinic in Addis Ababa for providing the aggresive anti-retroviral medications and medical supervision for HIV positive children. The clinic is being set up by an American medical charity founded by Jane Aronson, M.D. Dr. Aronson, who has already set up similar programs for HIV children in Viet Nam, has hired an Ethiopian physician to run the clinic and hopes to open the doors to the new facility this summer. The children from Enat are already on the list of patients that will receive care. AHOPE for children is looking forward to helping support Dr. Aronson's clinic as it provides the urgently needed health programs for the HIV positive children.

The decision on these changes was made recently after a colleague representing AHOPE for Children returned from Ethiopia where she met with the ENAT director as well as other organizations' leaders, Our website is also in the process of remodeling and should be up and ready with new information and a new look about April 1.

We have begun the process of notifying all sponsors and offering them new children to sponsor to replace the ENAT children they have been supporting. Photos and reports have begun to arrive and we will be offering new children to the individual sponsors as quickly as we can. Sponsors, please be patient; it will take weeks to do all the paperwork involved in making these transfers.

I hope that all the generous and caring sponsors and donors will continue to support AHOPE for Children as we begin the new projects. ENAT has outgrown its need for us. It is time to move on to help more children. I will be able to provide more details in the next few months, as the projects get underway.

It is clear that AHOPE for Children can't do it all. With partners we can do a great deal more. Overall, we can probably only make a small difference, but for the children whom we will help with your assistance, we will make all the difference in the world.

Thanks for your generosity, patience, and understanding.

Kathryn Pope Olsen
Executive Director"