It’s 2013, and I’m having coffee with Tanya Weaver, a woman I met on the Internet.
She’s dark-haired and petite, and we’re sitting at one of the tables at Midtown Scholar Bookstore, our legs dangling. Four weeks earlier, I had posted a for-hire French-tutor ad on Craigslist and received one response—hers.
“What interest do you have in French?” I asked.
“I do humanitarian work in sub-Saharan Africa and want to communicate better with some of our clients,” she replied.
A few weeks later, she made a vocabulary list topped with the words “maturity ward” and “training.” And, like everything else, she has not stopped.
Want the Best
The American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA) was founded in 2004 and has been directed from Weaver’s Linglestown living room since 2005. Providing assistance to children affected or infected with AIDS, the organization targets marginalized communities—it’s currently working in Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the French-speaking Democratic Republic of the Congo—not served by other humanitarian organizations.
Emphasizing solutions in education, agriculture, medicine, microfinance, hygiene and more, AFCA is almost entirely sustained by volunteer efforts. Back in 2005, 97 percent of HIV-positive children in AFCA’s first partner hospital in Mombasa, Kenya, were dying due to lack of access to medicine. That trend has now reversed as 97 percent of children who receive treatment in this same hospital are thriving.
“Nobody was doing anything,” said Weaver. “So, somebody had to.”
Weaver has a lifetime of international experience under her belt, including five years with Habitat for Humanity in Romania, Portugal, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Hungary and with Shelter for Life in Afghanistan. She has found that all people, regardless of circumstance, want the best for those around them. This humanity is the anchor of her involvement.
“I was offered this job when I was pregnant [with my first child],” Weaver said. “If my child was born with a disease or a virus—and had the chance of dying very early if nobody helped her—of course, I would want someone to do something. This prompted me to help other children.”
In Africa, AIDS is spread primarily through heterosexual contact and transferred through pregnancy, with the continent home to 88 percent of the world’s HIV-positive children. According to the Foundation of AIDS Research, 1.4 million people became infected in 2014. Yet, due to misconceptions, the problem can be under-acknowledged.
“Either people believe that AIDS has been eradicated or that it’s a virus that only affects the people considered to be at the margins of communities,” Weaver said.
Additionally, regarding Africa, the stereotype still pervades that “everyone’s poor and that nobody wants to work,” when the truth is actually far different.
“Mothers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are the hardest working women on earth,” Weaver said, adding that they just have far fewer resources to care for those they love.
Sustainable Giving
Weaver’s day begins at 6:10 a.m. with emails from doctors, project managers and leaders received throughout the night due to the five- to seven-hour time difference. After preparing breakfast—real food, she says, to keep her family grounded—she dives in.
Daily, she communicates with partners in Africa via Skype, email or telephone. Some days include working with local partners, including Mission Central in Mechanicsburg and Messiah College. Other days, she trains teams of volunteers for AFCA’s “Vacations with a Purpose” program to assist with on-the-ground construction, agriculture or medical projects in Zimbabwe, Kenya or Uganda.
On the days Weaver cancels French class, she heads to AFCA’s 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Lebanon to help volunteer manager Betsy Dorsey load a shipping container with new or gently used school and medical supplies, donated from individuals and hospitals across the United States and shipped to various partners in Africa five times a year.
Weaver herself annually travels to as many AFCA sites as possible.
Despite the burden of distance and need, Weaver insists her work isn’t a “job job.” It’s question-asking, resourcefulness and love.
“Over the years, I’ve created some great relationships,” she said.
Weaver’s eyes light up when discussing her upcoming projects, especially a sisal fiber processing project in Kenya that will employ 200 people normally considered “unhireable”—including 160 HIV-positive women, many with children. The fiber is a drought-resistant, year-round crop, but the work is only three days a week to allow for the care of a family. And it pays well enough to allow the children to go to school and to eat healthfully. The education provides the children with the skills to one day earn a living, breaking out of the cycle of need.
Networks of solutions like these drive Weaver.
“It’s sustainable giving,” she said. “AFCA’s largest goal is to no longer be needed.”
To learn more about the American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA), visit www.afcaids.org.
Getting Involved
Weaver works to provide opportunities for the Harrisburg-area community to engage with those who live half a world away, with 93.1 percent of all proceeds directly going to change lives abroad. Here are two upcoming opportunities to get involved:
Sept. 11 to 25—FeedONE aims to create awareness of the hunger epidemic in Africa by asking people to eat on just $1.90 a day—the World Bank’s definition of extreme poverty. Participants then donate the remainder of their normal weekly grocery budget to AFCA. The goal of $35,000 will help 360 children with seeds, livestock and training. For recipe ideas and to pledge, visit www.afcaids.org/feedone.
Oct. 8—Musicians Ryan Moran, Rivers, Hank Imhof, Shawan and the Wonton, Anthony Francesco and Indian Summer Jars will play live during AFCA’s Second Annual Family Music Fest at Wind in the Willows Inn in Grantville, 2 to 8 p.m. The event also features local food, family activities and a live auction of unique gifts and crafts. The cost is $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Children 10 and under are free. For tickets and information, visit the Facebook page: AFCA Music Fest.
Author: Sylvia Grove
