June Calendar PDF
PWRDF Story
Family Activity
Ages 6-10
Ages 10-15
Children's Book
How to Talk to Kids
Order a Calendar
Send Us Your Story
June HIV AIDS
HIV and AIDS is the June Focus of the PWRDF Family Calendar -- you can explore this important concern with your family at any time of the year.
HIV/AIDS is a massive threat to hope, to faith, to life itself. It is the terminal form of the world’s worst ailments –poverty, violence, racism, and exclusion. However, the heart of the Christian story is that death does not get the last word. The last word in our story is Life.
Our partners have expressed concern about the interpretation of this situation. Despair is a luxury they dare not afford. And they challenge us to do the same. When you discuss the global AIDS pandemic with your family, be sure to emphasize that the church can play an important role in keeping hope alive in the fight against AIDS, when we speak openly about the virus and sexual health, educate ourselves about prevention, resist discrimination and stigma, support community development initiatves for HIV-affected peoples, advocate for treatment, and care for bereaved families and orphaned children.
What age to talk?
Every parent must decide about when and how to discuss AIDS and sexuality with their child. Here are a few resources for your consideration:
- What to tell your kids about AIDS, Canadian AIDS Society;
- How to Talk to Your Children About AIDS Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States;
- The Birds and the Bees and Curious Kids Parenting.com;
- Sex, Self-Esteem and Young Teens, Today's Parent June 2006.
Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk about AIDS. Deborah Ellis
Ages: 10+ In short, autobiographical vignettes, young people, many of whom are orphans or living on the street, discuss their families, their favorite pastimes, their fears, and their dreams. Despite the tragedies, hardships, and grief expressed, many of the young people face their day-to-day lives with courage and manage to maintain hope for the future. Available from Parent Books
Family Activity: Learn, Act, Pray
Learn: As a family sit together and read "Our Stories Our Songs" or something from the suggested reading list in our Partnership for Life website. Discuss the situation with your children and listen for their questions and insights. Talk about being part of the response to the global AIDS crisis through PWRDF. Review of Our Stories Our Songs by Children's Librarian in Ottawa.
Act: Decide what you can do together to add your support to this program - everyone contribute to a family donation; donate the proceeds from your yard sale; challenge another family to match your contribution?
Pray: After you've decided how you would like to contribute. Take a few moments together as a family to pray. Light a candle if this helps to create a sacred moment. Remember those who have died. Remember all who are living with HIV and give thanks for everyone who works for " a generation without AIDS".
Points of Light The HIV/AIDS centre for women and orphans in Etwatwa, South Africa trains volunteer foster parents to support a family when the parent is in the last phase of the disease. The volunteers—usually low income, unemployed women—take a three-month training course before they are paired with an HIV affected family. The foster parent provides a constant and reassuring presence in the lives of children whose parents are living with AIDS.
In order to mitigate this loss, a foster parent begins visiting the household while the parent is still alive. Twice a day, the foster parent makes sure that children have nutritious meals, get to school, get their homework done and get put to bed. Sick parents are reassured to know that when they pass away someone who knows the children will continue to look after them, and they will not be separated from their siblings or their familiar environment.
In little houses called “Points of Light” throughout Etwatwa, women living with AIDS are encouraged to build “Memory Boxes”. It is very hard to do, because it means that the time they have with their children is limited. Their boxes include pictures, flowers, letters, medical records, stories of the family, and messages for their children in the future. Memory Boxes are given to the children when the mother dies. This inspiring and courageous ministry helps families address the practical needs of ongoing care for children and the deep emotional and spiritual loss related to losing a parent.
Activity for ages 6-10
On your own, or with a creative group of friends, use these instructions to make your own Hearts of Life Pin in support of the PWRDF Partnership for Life Initiative for a Generation Without AIDS. Sell the pins to raise funds for the HIV/ AIDS initiative and they will remain a lasting reminder of your community's commitment to the challenge of eliminating HIV/ AIDS from our world. Instructions..
Activity for ages 10-15: What Kids Can Do Zine
All around the world young people are making a difference in the fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS. Put together some ideas about what kids can do about HIV and AIDS by making your own "zine". Zine is a short form of the word 'magazine' and is a creative, cheap and fun way of publishing your own message. Instructions for making your own zine. Once you've created your zine, you can copy it, mail it, post it, hand it out, sell it -- up to you. Please also send us one at PWRDF.
For ideas and examples:
http://www.e-alliance.ch/postercd/index.html
PWRDF parter story of CoCoSi: Committee Against AIDS in El Salvador.
PWRDF is also a member of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. They have a cd of their poster competions, teaching tools, kids' letters to the UN and a resource to address stigma and discrimation on their website.
SWEET DEAL!
Share your family story with PWRDF and we send you a fair trade chocolate bar. More....
