Family members with HIV/AIDS carry a stigma and health complications that inhibits their ability to work. As a result they cannot provide an education for their children who are destined to perpetuate a life of poverty.

Micro-enterprise has emerged as one of the most powerful ways to empower those suffering from HIV/AIDS and living in poverty.  No other development instrument has generated so much enthusiasm and promise in the recent past in impacting the lives of the poor.

Project GRACE is a micro-enterprise program that provides a small loan (poultry or livestock) together with intensive training to healthy, self-motivated individuals with HIV to create a self-sustaining business that will support their families and send their children to school.   They become role models for other families in the community and continue the cycle of the program by donating their animal’s offspring back to Project GRACE to help future participants.

Recently Just Like My Child’s Country Director, Dena Lewerke went into the communities to do home visits of the families that were identified as being potential candidates for the second round of Project Grace. As a result of these home visits she has chosen the next ten participants. She will soon be following up by having meetings with each of the families to talk about which projects they will take on (piggery or poultry) and weigh the pro’s and cons of their project selection.

In addition, Dena is happy to report the current Project GRACE families are doing a great job, given the advice from the vet in regards to feeding their pigs enough food to keep them healthy while at the same time ensuring that they don’t compete for the families’ household food. The pigs are great and healthy, but they aren’t growing very fast and at this rate it will be quite some time before they are ready to produce offspring.

We are proposing to assist the families with a small donation of corn and a high nutrient pig feed to sustain them while the pigs grow to maturity.  Just Like My Child wants to make sure the household food supply is not affected by this delay in growth and that shortly the pigs will generate revenue and continue the cycle of Project GRACE with offspring.

Just Like My Child makes it possible for a donation of $300 to provide an entire family of 6 with a complete sustainable business.

Please support our specialized programs by making a donation.  https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=26195&Itemid=108