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Not an IACA Member Yet? Join Now!  |
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Newsletter
Heartland Medical and Phoenix Project IACA has supported Heartland Medical Express for the past few years and here is a summary of the type of projects they work on. Background In the early 1990s, uncountable poor peasants in central China were enticed by money to sell their blood to unscrupulous collecting agents. The common practices was to pool their blood, extract the plasma then to re-inject it back into these donors. This resulted in over a million people in China becoming infected with the HIV virus. Many of them are now dead or dying of AIDS. One million dead parents will eventually leave behind several million orphans. This is happening in Henan province of china today. If the AIDS epidemic is not stopped in its tracks, the UN estimated figure for Chinese HIV victims could reach 10 to 20 million by 2010. "In one village, there were eleven funerals in one day. Only one
death was not AIDS related." "The two families merged. The man has lost his wife to AIDS and
left with three children. The woman has lost her husband to AIDS and
left with two children. But this "union" is doomed to be short-lived
as both the man and woman are also HIV infected." "Ren Genqing, 16, dropped out of school three years ago. His father
died of AIDS in 2000, his mother in 2001. One uncle has died of AIDS
and another is sick. He alone is responsible for his 12-year-old brother." Project Phoenix The Project was conceived by the Board of Heartland Medical Express to help the AIDS orphans of China to stay schooled, clothed and fed. It is named Project Phoenix because we hope these orphans will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of their devastated families. A statement from Dr. Benny Ko, the project director, "China stands to lose all the social and economic gains that it has made in the last half century unless it can win the war against AIDS. Containing AIDS in central China therefore is the opening battle of a bigger war and our effort to help the AIDS orphans but a small skirmish. In that sense, Alamos was also just a skirmish in American's history, but when we made a stand we ended up rallying a nation. We need donations and volunteers for the project. To friends who plan to donate, please mark "Project Phoenix" on your check. For 2003, Heartland Medical Express will match the total donation, dollar for dollar, from an anonymous pledge. This way, you know every penny will be diligently managed and compassionately spent. Bill and Melinda Gates have pledged a hundred million dollars to help the AIDS victims of India. U2's Bono just started a global campaign to help the African AIDS victims. Can we do any less for China?" Donors can send their checks to: Project Phoenix Heartland Medical Express is an Indiana 501 (c)(3) charity organization founded to help orphans around the world in their health and development. We have practically no operation expense as we are run entirely by volunteers. 100% of the donations will go to our stated mission and projects. Visit our web site at: www.heartlandmedical.org Benny Ko
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