Dramatic presentations like this one in Lira, Uganda, are used to convey accurate information about HIV/AIDS. The presentations are part of the MET Program, which uses a Biblically based curriculum to “Mobilize, Equip, and Train” young people to make healthy choices.

Waterborne diseases can be life threatening for HIV-positive people with weakened immune systems. Access to clean water can extend the lives of these individuals, allowing many to raise their children to adulthood. From Bolivia’s highlands to India’s slums, Samaritan’s Purse provides clean water by drilling wells, installing household filters, and providing clean water to those affected by natural disasters.

Samaritan’s Purse trains and equips Christians in India to share Biblical wisdom for preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and caring for those who suffer.

Using a Biblically based curriculum, Samaritan’s Purse helps prevent the spread of HIV by teaching thousands of young people in Honduras how to make good choices and build relationships that will last a lifetime. 

When a country’s teachers, laborers, parents, and health care workers die of AIDS-related infections, the economic and social foundation of a nation is jeopardized. As mortality rises, vulnerable children are left behind. Elderly grandparents like Soh in Cambodia, often have difficulty meeting the physical demands of parenting. A new term has emerged to explain this increasingly common tragedy—the missing generation. 

In the Cambodian border town of Poipet, impoverished children are often at risk of exploitation. Many innocent children are trafficked and become infected with HIV. But Samaritan’s Purse is giving these children hope for the future by providing school fees, food, clean water, spiritual guidance, health care, and legal services.

In Mozambique, education is a luxury that comes at a high price. When children have the opportunity to attend school, they have a greater chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and a lower risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. 

HIV often casts a shadow on some of the world’s most beautiful nations. In Mozambique, more than 81,000 people here die of AIDS-related illnesses every year, making the average life expectancy only 41 years. 

In many countries, contracting HIV can be like receiving a death sentence. Samaritan’s Purse trains church members to perform basic home-based care, and infected individuals like this woman in Uganda experience the love of Christ when volunteers cook, clean, and provide clean water. Stigma is reduced when communities see Christians interacting with forgotten people.

When there is a lack of education, misinformation about the nature of HIV prevails. One widespread myth is that AIDS is an airborne illness. Stigma-induced fear often prevents people from getting tested or receiving the care they need. As a result, many HIV-positive individuals like this man are permanently quarantined from their communities, living out their remaining days in isolation. However, when the truth about HIV is communicated, entire communities are transformed. Individuals seek out testing, and church members begin to care for their own. 

What you may not know… People do not die of AIDS itself. Instead, the virus known as HIV breaks down T-cells, which protect the body from sickness. Full-blown AIDS cripples the immune system, making illnesses like tuberculosis, malaria, or water-borne diseases fatal. This man, in a camp for people displaced by conflict in northern Uganda, is unable to easily access medical treatment.

Because HIV infection and poverty are closely linked, Samaritan’s Purse provides livestock and agricultural programs to help boost local economies and provide a source of income for years to come. Here, a Liberian woman trained by Samaritan’s Purse to harvest fish now has a way to support her family without engaging in work that could put her at risk of contracting HIV. 

During times of political instability and conflict, sexual violence is used to humiliate and demoralize communities into submission. When the conflict ends, the women who survive the brutal attacks are often infected with HIV. Here, graffiti from Liberia depicts the illustrator’s vision of the war. 

Liberia’s civil war displaced communities and scattered families. When soldiers raided a village, family members fled in all directions to avoid capture. Countless children never learned the fate of their parents, and without family, they are at risk of exploitation and HIV infection. Samaritan’s Purse partners with local Christian organizations to care for these boys and girls. North American church groups have also traveled overseas with Samaritan’s Purse to provide special programming and activities. 

About 75 percent of the world’s 15 million AIDS orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa. Samaritan’s Purse equips leaders to care for vulnerable children in their own communities.

In many African nations, economic opportunity often divides families, forcing husbands to live away from their wives for extended periods of time. In these mobile societies, towns along trucking routes are hotbeds of infection. In Voinjama, Liberia, many of these travelers frequent nightclubs or brothels, and then carry the disease back to their spouses.

Each day, Navy and her two children must walk through disease-infested waters to reach their home in a slum outside Cambodia’s capital city. HIV has greatly diminished their immunities, and the polluted water exposes the family to a greater risk of illness. Navy is now receiving medical treatment through a Samaritan’s Purse ministry partner, which will slow the progression of the disease and extend her life. After weeks of experiencing the compassion of Christians, Navy accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior and joined a local church where she and her children are supported and loved. “I know I will be with God one day,” she said.

Chit Srey lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with her husband and four children. Srey contracted HIV from her husband and passed it on to her daughter. “I feel scared about my daughter’s future,” she said, “and what it’s going to be like, because I cannot do anything for her.” Local Christians trained by Samaritan’s Purse travel throughout the country to meet the physical and spiritual needs of those living with HIV/AIDS. A team visits Srey regularly, bringing hope in the form of food, medicine, companionship, and prayer. “They give me a lot of good counseling and pray for me and my family,” she said. “I feel very excited and happy on the inside.”

In this remote island village in Cambodia, Samaritan’s Purse staff provides HIV/AIDS education and home-based care training for church members. This single mother was very ill and unable to properly care for her child when Pastor Keyphum found her living in isolation. “My community abandoned me,” the mother said. “I was very lonely. Pastor Keyphum spoke good words to me and encouraged me. This is the reason why I accepted Jesus Christ.”

Despite the disease, her eyes speak of hope. In this remote Cambodian village, Samaritan’s Purse has mobilized volunteer teams to provide physical care, food, water, prayer, and companionship to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. As a result, this woman’s life expectancy has been extended, and most importantly, she has become a follower of Jesus Christ and spreads a message of hope for HIV/AIDS in her community.

Samaritan’s Purse equips and trains local churches to bring accurate information about HIV/AIDS, compassionate care, and prevention education for youth to their communities. Pastor Asaiya Alaxander of Christian Family Church in Sri Lanka uses the Samaritan’s Purse “Build Your Dreams” curriculum to encourage young people to pursue education and abstain from sex before marriage. 

Across Southeast Asia, HIV is frequently transmitted from mother to child during birth or through nursing. Education and inexpensive medication for mothers can prevent children from contracting the disease.

Around the world, an estimated 82 million girls between the ages of 10 and 17 will be married before they complete their education. In India, girls who do not finish high school are more likely to contract HIV. Here, Monorama Bairagi, 17, is enrolled in a Samaritan’s Purse-supported school in Kolkata for low-income families.

One person can lead the way. You can do something! Visit http://www.samaritanspurse.org/bethevirus to learn more about how you can spread an epidemic of hope for HIV/AIDS.

Of the 32 Cambodians shown here, two are HIV positive. Can you tell?