Remembering all Mothers

How would you feel if this was your child?

“It was my father who first got sick, we took him to hospital but after two days he died. My mother then fell sick so we took her to hospital, we paid a lot of money but she died too. My brother then looked after us, but he later died. Now I look after all the children”.

Deus, Ugandan child

The devastation left by HIV/AIDS is unparalleled. In 2008, an estimated 1.9 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa, where all our projects are based, became newly infected with HIV, bringing the total number of people living with HIV in this area to 22.4 million.

Poor African families have enough hardship to bear trying to feed themselves, yet alone to battle such an overwhelming disease. It's no surprise therefore that many of the children we meet are orphans, who have lost their childhood as they have to take on the responsibilities of adult life.

At Send a Cow we want to give all mothers - and fathers - every possible chance to support their children, to see them grow, and to live long and happy lives.

So this year, when you're choosing a gift for Mother's Day, why not give mum something really special and buy her a gift to remember a child in Africa who has lost their mother to this terrible disease?

Your gift could help us provide training for the groups we work with, giving them the skills and techniques they need to produce more and better crops.

Having fed their families, farmers can then sell any surplus to raise enough money to pay for their bus fare so they can collect their medication to manage their HIV – known as ARVS (antiretroviral drugs).

If patients take ARVs when they should, the amount of virus in their bodies can fall by 10,000 times, to a level at which they are extremely unlikely to pass the virus on. This is why goats also make a perfect gift. The gift of a goat this Mother's Day will provide healthy, nutritious milk which helps with the absorption of ARVs and keeps people strong.

As reported recently, on average, a person with HIV infects between five to 10 others before succumbing to complications of AIDS. Treating patients with ARVs within a year of becoming infected can reduce transmission tenfold, enough to cause the epidemic to die out.

Together, we can help farmers across Africa fight against HIV/AIDS. Please look at our range of gifts suitable for Mother’s Day. They'll put a smile on your mum's face - and that of a poor African child.