MCC’s first shipment of AIDS Care Kits shipped to Africa

Across North America, donors responded to Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) call for new AIDS Care Kits.

The first shipment of some 520 kits, including towels and medicines, left the MCC Material Resources Center here on June 10; 100 kits will go to Tanzania, 300 to Uganda and 120 to Ethiopia. A shipment of more than 500 kits will leave from Canada this summer as well.

In the MCC Material Resources Center in Ephrata, Pa., volunteers Anna Weinhold, left, Ruth Weaver, in the background, and Esther Gehman, right, check AIDS Care Kits. MCC News Photo: Benji Krause

“We were really pleased,” said Sarah Adams, MCC’s HIV/AIDS coordinator. “Women’s groups responded. Families did kits. Youth groups and Sunday school classes did kits. It just turned out to be a neat way for groups to talk about AIDS and work together on a project.”

The kits began after Adams and overseas MCC workers repeatedly heard stories of dedicated volunteers who went to the homes of AIDS patients to help fill the gaps in overwhelmed health care systems. Volunteers, many with few resources themselves, would talk and pray with patients, providing needed spiritual and emotional support.

But many had no supplies to bandage patients’ sores, soothe irritated skin or relieve pain. By the time patients are ill enough to need care, Adams said, they are often so poor they cannot afford basic hygiene supplies.

Kits include soap, sheets and pillowcases, washcloths and towels, rubber gloves, petroleum jelly and medicated body powder, as well as $100. In addition to providing funds for locally purchased supplies or needs, MCC includes medical items such as pain relievers, oral rehydration salts, antibiotic ointments and multivitamins. For information on compiling a kit, see mcc.org.