Cook County Board President John H. Stroger, Jr. and Daniel H. Winship, M.D., chief of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, announced the establishment of the ‘CORE Connection to Africa’ project, according to a CORE press release. The project is an initiative of staff and patients at the County’s Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center that will connect with and provide support to persons living with HIV in Africa, particularly in Rwanda and Kenya.
Led by CORE Center physicians and staff members, CORE Center patients—many of whom are HIV-positive—gathered for a recent luncheon event to raise funds, write cards and take photographs to send to HIV-infected persons in Rwanda and Kenya. CORE Center staff members have committed to match five dollars for every one dollar a patient donates, up to $100.
Many Rwandans live on less than $1 a day and have taken in children orphaned either by the genocide of 1994 or the current AIDS crisis. As many as 10 percent of the country’s population is infected with the HIV virus.
Patients contributing through the CORE Connection to Africa program will not only have their contribution matched 5-to-1, but will also be able to choose from two African organizations to which they wish to donate—WE-ACTx in Rwanda (to empower women) or KAIPPG in Kenya (for orphanages).