Blessings is a 12-year-old girl living with HIV. She is taking anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and is in our AIDS Relief program. She is a delightful, bright, engaging girl who knows Jesus as her Savior. Although she has suffered deeply because of HIV & AIDS, she is facing her situation with faith and courage.

Mother's Sacrificial Love

Blessings lives with her grandmother because both of her parents died of AIDS. Blessings' mother was a committed believer who served as a deaconess in her church. When they were both diagnosed with AIDS, she could only afford to buy the anti-AIDS drugs for one of them. She enrolled Blessings in the government hospital's ART program, choosing to deny herself treatment in order to give Blessings a chance to live.

When she was too sick to care for her daughter, she took Blessings and moved in with her mother, near Kasempa. After eight weeks of coma, she died at Mukinge Hospital, with Blessings and her mother by her side. She embraced death in order to give her daughter a chance to live, following the example of Jesus.

Gradual Improvement Recently, the Zambian government dropped the monthly fee for "low cost" ART. For Blessings' mother, this has come too late. Although Blessings is still a bit frail and has been hospitalized a couple of times, she is making slow and gradual improvement—and her grandmother, who is also a committed Christian, is a diligent and attentive caregiver.

Pray

Please pray for them. Their lives are not easy, but they are facing them with courage. Their faith in Jesus is sustaining them, even through this.

Go

Are you a health professional? There are many opportunities to serve people like Blessings at Mukinge Hospital. Find out more

Learn more about HOPE for AIDS, SIM's response to HIV & AIDS worldwide.