Christians are helping children orphaned by AIDS in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe (MNN) — Thursday is World AIDS Day. 15 million AIDS orphans are expected by 2015 because of the deadly disease. That means the church around the world needs to do something to help these children who can’t help themselves. That’s exactly what Christian World Outreach is doing that through their Mobile Orphanage in Zimbabwe.

CWO’s Greg Yoder says it more like a foster care program. “We’re not trying to bring children to a center and out of their communities, but be able to keep them in their communities. We go to them and try to work with school teachers and community leaders and churches in the community to care for the children who have been orphaned by AIDS.”

CWO is asking people to support children at $21 a month. Yoder says the money is used, “To pay for their school fees, basic school supplies, uniform, food kits, we try to supplement the food that the guardians are already giving them trying to support the people physically for taking care of these kids.”

Camps are also a part of the ministry, says Yoder. “The camps are held for a couple of reasons. One is to introduce them to Christ and to provide spiritual teaching. To other is to just help them interact with other children from the community.” And, many of them are turning to Christ.

This ministry is also allowing Christian World Outreach to reach out to the caregivers.

Yoder says the number of AIDS orphans is a desperate problem. “They’re just children who are taking care of themselves and taking care of other children.” While many people in Zimbabwe would love to help, they can’t because of financial concerns.

Pray that CWO will be effective in recruiting sponsors and leading those involved to a relationship with Christ.