Aids Orphans Thousands Lose Parents In Hiv-Ravaged Haiti

They jump rope, beat out a hypnotic Haitian rhythm on a plastic beach bucket and sing, lustily, out of tune.

The children at Rainbow House don’t know they were born to the poorest of the poor in Haiti, and are heirs to the AIDS disease that killed their mothers.

“Welcome, Baby Jesus,” Sherlene Telusma, 7, lisps through a broken tooth, practicing a Christmas carol.

Haitian accountant Robert Penette and his Canadian wife, Danielle Reid Penette, have taken in as many HIV-infected orphans as they can afford. At the moment that’s 17, with Sherlene the oldest and the youngest 14 months old.

Prior to World AIDS Day, recognized today, Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health announced that nearly every second child among an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 living on the streets of Port-au-Prince - seven out of 15 - was infected with the AIDS virus.

Four thousand newborns were HIV-positive in 1995, according to a new study from the National Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Control of AIDS. In all, more than 25,000 children under the age of 15 will be orphaned within two years because of the AIDS epidemic in Haiti.

Rainbow House is a light, airy home, with the alphabet adorning the wall of a classroom and rag dolls in the girls’ bedroom, in the Boutillier hilltop suburb where breezes cool the tropical heat.

Still, Sherlene was worried. “She kept asking who was going to take care of her mother. And, ‘What’s maman going to do for food?”’ said Danielle Penette, who is from Montreal.

For nearly a year before she came here, Sherlene, then 5, was the sole provider for her mother and an older brother, begging all day on the streets of Port-au-Prince for pennies to buy some rice and beans to take home in the evening.

A neighbor brought her to Rainbow House when her mother became terminally ill.

At first, “she was like a caged bird. Angry that she couldn’t go out on the street when she wanted, unused to the discipline we impose,” said Danielle Penette.

Sherlene is happier since she started school in October. “I’m learning to write in a notebook, and we draw a lot and sing. I love singing,” she says, the braids on her head bobbing as she broke into song.

“Sherlene knows that an illness killed her mother. But she doesn’t know that she is infected with the same virus. And she doesn’t know that it will kill her,” said Penette.

Some of the children have already died since the Penettes opened the home two years ago, and several others suffering full-blown AIDS are very listless.

Advances in AIDS treatment that have helped contain the disease in the West are only available to the rich in Haiti.

“We don’t have the money to give any AIDS treatment to the children. All we can do is treat the opportunistic ailments that attack them because their immune systems are weak. They suffer a lot of diarrhea and skin infections,” Penette said. A doctor friend treats the children free of charge.

Sherlene has scars on her stomach from shingles, a skin disease, and scratches often at sores on her arms.

Most Haitian children infected like Sherlene probably will die on the streets where they live, Penette said.

According to the National Strategic Plan study, nearly 101,400 new AIDS cases were reported this year - for a total of nearly 324,700 cases in all. Just three years ago, there were only 5,000 cases of full-blown AIDS reported in Haiti.

In a country with abominable health care, most cases go unreported, he said. And many Haitians still believe that people who die of AIDS are the victims of black magic.

Overall, the Caribbean has the second highest HIV-infection rates in the world, surpassed only by sub-Saharan Africa.

Nearly two in every 100 Caribbean residents aged 15 to 50 are infected with the virus, according to a new study by the Trinidad-based Caribbean Epidemiological Center.

It found that Caribbean females between 15 and 19 have a five times higher rate of infection than males, said Dr. Uli Wagner, a German epidemiologist working for the research center.

Wagner said Caribbean nations should copy the success of Uganda, where countrywide campaigns urging condom use have dramatically reduced the infection rate.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: EPIDEMIC According to a study from the National Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Control of AIDS, more than 25,000 Haitian children under the age of 15 will be orphaned within two years because of the AIDS epidemic.