APARA - American Pan-African Relief Agencies, Inc.

APARA provides services to the Pan-African community in Metropolitan New York. As a young organization started full operations only in 2000, APARA is aware of the enormous tasks and challenges pertaining to service delivery. In this connection, APARA have signed Linkage Services Agreements with reputable organizations with whom services are being jointly delivered.

APARA's offices are currently located at 3720 Olinville Avenue, in the Bronx, New York. APARA"S offices was previously located at 2403 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10035 and relocated to its present office for logistics reasons and also to be within the area of densely packed, diverse ethnic groups in the New York metropolitan area that it serves.

Community Services

Service programs are based on needs in the immigrant and non-immigrant community as identified in a survey conducted by Non-Profit Connection, Inc. of New York and sponsored by the New York Foundation for APARA. This survey revealed a large group of immigrants in the Metropolitan New Area who lack the necessary skills to effectively integrate into the society – especially among non-English speaking immigrants. In addition to language barriers, cultural differences, inadequate housing, lack of skills and education and insufficient funds for basic necessities prevent them from accessing resources that would allow for a smooth transition and self-reliance.

APARA Programs & Development Plan

Ms. Matola, Executive Director of the New York Foundation, at a grant meeting the executive staff of APARA.

With the cooperation of other service agencies and organizations, APARA strives to provide those in need with appropriate and effective services which will enable them to become independent and self-sustaining. APARA’s hope and aspiration is to receive ongoing funding to provide these services through donations from those who have the vision and the desire to see the benefits of their generosity.

HIV/AIDS Outreach Programs for Prevention, Testing and Counseling - a decade ago, life expectancy in Africa was 61 years. Today, it is just 37

AIDS victims are increasing at a fast rate. This insidious disease is ravaging the World, with a permanent cure yet to be found. In the African immigrant community resident in the United States, for example, knowledge of HIV testing and prevention is almost nonexistent because of cultural taboos about the disease. Because of these and other factors, It is not surprising that the United Nations reports that the Pan-African region accounts for the highest rate of infection world-wide. A UNAIDS report estimates there are 30 million people in Sub Saharan Africa who are HIV positive; 58% of these are women. According to the same UNAIDS report, as of 1999, in all of Africa, more than 32 million adults including 15 million women were living with HIV/AIDS and almost 14 million had already died of this horrific disease. In Africa, approximately 3.5 million new cases of HIV are estimated for 2002, representing over 70% of the World total.

In North Africa, up to 8.8%of the population has been infected with HIV and that number is projected to rise to almost 40% in the near future. The countries hardest hit with HIV AIDS are Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, Swaziland and Zambia. Swaziland, one of the poorest countries in the world, is mostly severely affected. Four in every 10 people are HIV positive. Today, more than one third of the population in four African countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe) are HIV positive. This terrible situation is creating thousands more AIDs orphans and is spreading famine to the entire community, as key workers are lost to the disease. About 50% of the patients in these country's hospitals now have AIDS, while about one third of all children will be AIDS orphans. In some African countries, the tradition of inheriting the now-infected wives of fathers or brothers who died of AIDS is also contributing immensely to the spread of the deadly disease, causing a generation to go to its early grave and leaving behind AIDS orphans.

The HIV virus is passed down from pregnant mothers to their babies. It costs just less than three U. S. dollars for an injection to stop this, but most of the hospitals in the affected countries in Africa do not have the injection or other HIV/AIDS medications due to poverty and financial constraint.

Mr. Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and now the Head of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, said in his presentation at the HIV/AIDS conference in China, “if testing is not encouraged, AIDS will become worldwide, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction”.

AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children

The hardest hit group of this devastating disease, are the growing number of children orphaned by AIDS. According to USAID and UNAIDS, more than 13 million children who are now orphans, have lost both parents to AIDS. The HIV AIDS pandemic has stricken millions of adults, leaving behind many millions of orphans, often left in the care of helpless older children and or elderly grandparents. As a result of poverty, social and financial hardship, most of these children ends up on the streets committing violent crimes and prostitution. Also, there are millions of other children infected by this killer disease HIV AIDS either through birth or breast feeding. Due to lack of support and adequate medical care, most of these vulnerable children end up miserable and frustrated in life.

USAID Administrator Mr. J. Brandy Anderson, has said, "The scope and complexity of the challenges facing children by HIV AIDS and AIDS orphans cannot be overstated, they are more likely to drop out of school, contract HIV, or be forced to work in order to survive". Some are even sold to sex slavery. More than 44 million children in over 34 developing nations will likely have lost one or both parents by the year 2010. Most of these deaths will result from HIV/AIDS and other complicating illnesses. Over two million children have lost both parents to AIDS in Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia. In Zambia alone, where 25% of adults suffer from HIV/AIDS, an more than 650,000 children have lost one parent to AIDS, as of September 2002. The numbers would have increased by this year 2005. AIDS kills a Zimbabwean child every 15 minutes and global donors should open their purses to fight the epidemic with the same intensity they have fought democracy. "The global generosity toward tsunami victims was inspiring, but it has dried up for Zimbabwean children”, says Ms. Carol Bellamy, former Executive Director, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)

In her Orphan Alert contribution, Ms. Albina du Boisrouvray of Francois Xavier Bagnout, has said, "HIV AIDS is like a darkening sky that poses a serious threat to our planet. It is much more than a global public health crisis. It is a social crisis that is tearing apart the fabric of communities and societies. It spreads rapidly in societies without a strong education and health care system". This is the real situation in the Pan African regions

Special Services

With regard to our community services, APARA regards successful programs as those that provide people in need with appropriate and effective services, which will sustain them both medically and economically. APARA's hope and aspiration is to receive sufficient funding to continue our services to the community. As for APARA special services for HIV/AIDS programs, we are working very hard and in partnership and collaboration with other organizations in providing special services and a variety of programs to help improve the quality of lives of the AIDS orphans and vulnerable children, and for adults infected by HIV/AIDS in the Pan African regions. These services and programs include improving health care services, outreach programs in English and local languages for HIV/AIDS prevention, counseling, testing and treatment, providing community support, vocational training and educational programs.

The former U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. Richard C. Holbroke in his concluding remarks on HIV AIDS at the amFAR Symposium, United Nations, said on November 30, 2000, "‘I think this disease is the greatest challenge that we will ever face in our lifetime. It is the greatest health plague in at least six hundred years. We all know that, and we cannot turn away from it. We cannot go back to denial. We cannot call it just a health issue or problem for doctors, or problem that only affects a certain narrow segment of society."

Governments, non-governmental, charitable and religious organizations have been doing their best in providing resources, to tackle the problem, but the demand for prevention and treatment is escalating. APARA hereby joins the crusade in appealing for adequate funding to enable us provide effective services. APARA's preventive case management outreach program goal is to seek, identify, win confidentiality and educate vulnerable people about treatment and prevention.

Your generous donations to help those in need can be made by credit card or e-check online through our secure website, or by regular mail using this form. We also welcome non-financial donations of medical, educational, computer and other supplies. Please tell us about your non-financial contribution using this form. All donations will be gratefully acknowledged for tax purposes.