Climb Up So Kids Can Grow Up Team Climbs Kahiltna Glacier to Help Children With Aids in Africa

Justin Wood (Bellingham, Washington), Jeremy Ellison (Lake Tahoe, California), Johnny Davison (Lake Wanaka, New Zealand), and Aidan Loehr (Bellingham, Washington) summited 20,320-foot summit on July 1, carrying the flag of the “Climb Up So Kids Can Grow Up” drive for fund raising and public awareness of infant and childhood AIDS in Africa. The alpinists flew onto the Kahiltna Glacier in the Denali National Park on June 15th. They gradually worked their way up glaciers on the mountain’s western flank until reaching Camp 3 at 14,000 feet where they were pinned down by heavy snows and high winds for a week. On July 30th they made it to a high camp at 17,200 where they spent two nights before making their summit bid on July 2nd.

Wood reported that it was a beautiful day to summit and that the conditions were especially appreciated after so many days and nights of storm. In a statement that he wrote out and then read over a satellite telephone from high on Denali, Wood said:

“This whole trip has seemed parallel to the fights against AIDS. We had some tough times, there were many days on which we had to revise our plans, and there were many days on which we thought it might not be possible to reach our goals despite our best efforts. But we kept our focus, and we were committed to lasting out our troubles with this storm high on the mountain rather than trying to head down to lower altitudes.

“We had all trained hard so we felt like we had the personal resources in fitness and gear to back up our mental commitment to hang in there. The storms and the bad days weren’t fun, but we kept focused on the goal, and while waiting for our chance for success, really watched out for each other. It was a huge team effort. Everyone doing a good job himself plus watching out for the well being of the other guy is what made weathering the miserable conditions possible.

“In the end we pushed a little further when it looked like there might be an opportunity to try for the summit. We moved to seventeen thousand not knowing for sure if we would have our window of opportunity, but we knew if we didn’t give it our all and put ourselves in that position at 17,200 feet, we definitely couldn’t succeed. So we moved up, took a rest day, and then found our window of opportunity.

“There was great joy and pride in our group when after a very long summit day, we moved to the top and set foot on the 20,320’ summit of North America. We were personally psyched, and we were all very excited to be using the moment to be drawing attention to the AIDS epidemic and to the fact that by working together and by staying committed, we will find a solution to this immense problem.

“We are convinced that ending the epidemic will eventually be possible, and that in the mean time, education of and resulting compassion from the general public will help those who have been stricken survive and live good lives. Like each member of this team doing their part, we are convinced that if each person sees themselves as part of a team to fight AIDS and plays their small part, we can have enormous effect.

“Like this team hanging in their day after day in the awful conditions, if each person who learns about this will just hang in there with a small donation month after month, the effect we can have is tremendous. We’re hoping to inspire people to see themselves as part of a team on a very long expedition. We hope each will make a commitment to giving long-term to reach our summit goal of helping these young people live fruitful lives. Instead of giving $100 one time, this team hopes the members of the bigger team to fight AIDS will give a set amount each month (whether its $10 or $50) and make their team membership in the fight against AIDS an ongoing part of their life. That’s the hope and commitment we want to pass on to you. If we can reach a goal like summiting Denali under difficult conditions in an arctic environment, we are convinced we can succeed in helping these kids live to see a tomorrow. Let’s do it!”

The team expects to return to the base of the mountain by July 3 and fly off the glacier on July 4th.

AIDS fact of the day

On this date in 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five gay men in Los Angeles were suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with weakened immune systems. They were the first recognized cases of what came to be known as AIDS.

Wow. It's amazing to think how far we've come in 27 years. It's also mind-boggling in some respects to think about how far we have to go yet in this fight.

American Foundation for Children with AIDS Referenced in What Matters by David Elliot Cohen

We were so thrilled to be informed that the American Foundation for Children with AIDS will be listed as reference in the "What You Can Do" section of David Elliot Cohen's new book titled What Matters. We are absolutely honored and grateful to be included in this book, and we look forward to many more kids having life because of the inclusion.

David Elliot Cohen is the author of The Day in the Life and America 24/7 photo book series. His new book What Matters will be published by the Sterling Publishing division of Barnes & Noble on September 2nd, 2008.

What Matters contains 18 searing, socially conscious photo essays by the great photojournalists of our generation including James Nachtwey and Sebastiao Salgado. These essays, shot over the course of years, address the essential issues of our time. Each photo-essay is accompanied by a passionate, polemical essay written by such well known experts such as Jeffrey Sachs (The End of Poverty), Samantha Power (Pulitzer Prize winner for A Problem From Hell: America in the Age of Genocide), and Bill McKibben (The End of Nature). The purpose of the What Matters project is:

• to use superior photography and prose to highlight and provoke discussion of essential global issues in various media,
• to inspire social action; and
• to provide readers with resources they can utilize to help create social change.

We encourage all of you to visit the book's website.
You can also download the book at http://whatmatters.blog.com.

Climb Up So Kids Can Grow Up Posters!

We have some posters for this year's Climb event!


Please click here to download a poster. Hang it up anyplace anyone might see it.

Last year's Climb Up So Kids Can Grow Up event was a great success. Hikers, bikers and staircase climbers across the U.S. literally climbed to the rescue and reached incredible heights to raise over $14,500 for a common goal: to save the lives of children affected by AIDS. The money raised gave 38 children daily life-saving medicine for an entire year.

Here's a video of some of the kids the AFCA programs help. They're so cute!

For anyone interested in participating in this year's Climb Up So Kids Can Grow Up event, mark your calendars for September 20 and 21. Then please click here to learn more or to register. REMEMBER: You don't have to climb a rock!! You can walk around your living room if you want to!!

Mombasa days

I am sitting in the guesthouse room, looking over our budget and trying to figure out if we can possibly hire an assistant, since there is just way too much to do. Outside, right below my window, there is a wedding taking place. Two houses down, there is another wedding taking place. Both have music happening and people talking and children running around and it all adds up to LOTS OF NOISE. Suddenly, from across the street, I hear the call to prayer from the mosque. And, I start laughing with Mary (who is also trying to do some work…involving numbers, as well) as we try to reconcile two wedding bashes and their music with the call to prayer of the mullah. Strange…

The cold water shower feels good after a day of traipsing around in the mugginess that engulfs Mombasa and the coast, so there are no complaints there. Our little Mombasa guesthouse is quite comfortable, really, but it does have the added bonus of having iguanas and lizards running around. I have found lizard and/or iguana poop on the beds and my things and it sort of makes me not sleep too well because all I can think of is that one of those creatures is going to run up my body sometime through the night. Even though they are cute and all, I don’t relish the thought of them waking me up by crawling on me. So, I am not sleeping too well here.

Today we were told that we should take beans, rice, milk or sugar to our friends in Zimbabwe, as they really don’t have much of anything. So, we trundled off to the supermarket and purchased some stuff to take with us and now my suitcases are heavy again. I was all excited that my suitcases weren’t so full or heavy anymore since I’ve unloaded 2/3 of the gifts we brought, including 17 pounds of candy and 20 pounds of stickers. I was wrong! They are heavy again. Just received an SMS telling me that we should still plan on coming to Zimbabwe, even though there still has not been an announcement of who won the presidency. Hope everything stays as calm as can be while we are there!

Africa: Day 2 (Kampala, Uganda)

Who am I? Who am I to be given this task of providing ARVs and medicine to children in East and Southern Africa? Who am I to be allowed to be a part of something like this, where I get to meet brave people who every day fight for the rights of children to have adequate care and a hope of life? Who am I to fit into this large puzzle as a little piece, adding a bit of color, a bit of character in what could really quite a bleak picture if not for the people here on the ground in Africa and in other parts of the world who toil day in and day out to provide the kids with what they need? They are the ones who are the main characters in the puzzle… the picture would be impossible without them.

I am always humbled when I see what ordinary people can do with a little elbow grease, hard work, some donations, and lots of prayer. I am amazed that I, little Tanya, am a part of the work done by Mulago Hospital, which provides care for 25% of the children who receive ART in Uganda. There are so many others who need help…so many who could use some medicine…we have a lot more to do! Food, counseling, medicine, testing, PMTCT, community development, and so many other steps are needed in order to do a complete job. When I see it all coming together, as I did in Mulago today, I get overjoyed that we are a little sliver in the big pie which constitutes ART (anti-retroviral therapy).

The Pediatric Infectious Disease Center of Mulago Hospital is overflowing…children, babies, and parents wait patiently for hours, waiting to be seen…on an average day, 175 children are seen at this Center. Waiting rooms are full to capacity, hallways have become a place of gathering, with nurses and doctors having to squeeze their way through. Two doctors share each of the consulting rooms because they have run out of space. Yet, patients keep coming and they literally overflow to the outer walls of the Center, finding shade as they know the wait could be long. Yet, they wait because they know that their children will be treated with dignity and that if they need help and medicine, they will not be turned away. In fact, AFCA provides medicine for 350 of the kids who need the life saving (anti-retroviral) medicine these kids need to survive and it is awesome to see how

In the main waiting room, Nurse Jane is reading books to waiting children and a play mat is set up in the corner for the kids to do some exercise and games every day. not only does this help kill some of the boredom of waiting, but the kids get a rare chance of reading and borrowing books from the “waiting room library”, a little cubby with inventoried book which the kids can check out to read while they wait. As we walk through the waiting room, little hands reach out to touch our white legs, smiling when they’ve touched the foreigner. Curly, braided, matted, out of control, combed, clean and/or dirty little heads look up at us, not knowing who we are. Not knowing that my heart is breaking for the other children, the ones who don’t have the opportunity for care and medicine. As I look into their eyes, whether they are sick or doing better, I feel a sense of urgency to do more, to help in a larger way. And I come back around to the question “who am I to have been chosen to do this work, to be given the chance to help in some way?”

And, I am humbled to be counted as one of those who is battling in the fight against pediatric AIDS.

Africa: Day 1

24 hours after leaving Harrisburg, PA, I landed in Kampala, Uganda. A long journey, but a good one. I had good seat mates and laughed at dumb movies shown on the long flight from Amsterdam to Kampala. I tell you what! It is so not worth flying on US airlines! The food wasn’t good, the seating was SOOOO cramped and the movie didn’t work. That makes for a very long transatlantic flight. But, once we got on KLM in Amsterdam, everything changed and it was comfortable and the food was downright good. I laughed so much at the movie “enchanted”…hilarious…well, the first 2/3 of it was hilarious. The last part was a waste of time, but the first part made it well worth the watch.

We hired Charles, a taxi driver, to take us to the guesthouse where Mary and I are staying and as we made our way from the airport there, I felt familiar with the smell of Uganda and the banana leaves. It brings me back to my childhood in Colombia and all that is comforting and equatorial to my senses. The noise of the traffic, the congestion, the beeping and moving of cars is not something I missed, though! But the warmth of the reception at the guesthouse, where Phoebe has greeted me each year I come to visit was most welcome and I felt like I was visiting a friend. Full on a plate of fresh French fries fried as soon as we arrived, with some sliced tomatoes, I made my way to my room to shower in what seemed like an eternity and to brush my teeth. I felt new in no time, but decided that I should sleep as I hadn’t slept in any of the flights over.

Now, it is morning, I hear the birds chirping and the traffic roaring. It is time for breakfast and to start our visits with our partners. Today we officially start our visit to Africa by meeting with Dr. Addy K at the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Center at the Mulago Hospital, where we provide ARV’s and other medicine to HIV+ kids and their HIV+ guardians. I am so excited to see what and how they are doing and to deliver the thousands of stickers and all the books we brought for the kids who get tested at the center to determine what they have. Stickers are such a part of our own children’s lives that we take them for granted. But here, they are not all that common and the kids really like having something to take home after being brave at the lab. Thanks to MediBadge for the 7500 stickers they gave us to bring to the kids!

I hear the sound of foot traffic outside my window…the day is definitely flowing by me and I need to make my way to breakfast.