Regarding America

Art for Orphans: Isabelle's Global Orphan Project

By Daniel Hamon

Isabelle Redford became so concerned about the plight of orphaned children in Haiti that she decided to find a way to help. Since she has always loved to draw, she started drawing and selling gift cards to raise money to help care for orphans.  Through her efforts, Isabelle raised $10,000 that funded an orphanage in Haiti and will soon fund another one in Malawi. Isabelle is only 7-years old but says she wants to keep doing this for a "very long time, maybe forever."

Maj. Scott Southworth Adopts Disabled Iraqi Orphan

By Daniel Hamon

While deployed in Iraq in 2003, then Captain Southworth met Ala'a, a 9 year old boy who had cerebral palsy. The police had found him abandoned on a street in Baghdad six years earlier. Southworth and Ala'a met at an orphanage run by the Mother Theresa organization.

Southworth was part of the Wisconsin National Guard's 32nd Military Police Company, a unit responsible for professionalizing the Baghdad Police in northeastern Baghdad. They also visited the Mother Theresa orphanage regularly during the following 10 months. During this time, Southworth and Ala’a grew close.

PEPFAR Saves Millions of Lives in Africa

By Daniel Hamon

Earlier this year I visited an HIV/AIDS orphanage in Africa. In the midst of tremendous difficulty, the children were happy to wave and smile to a stranger - their young spirits were full of life. As part of the visit, a worker showed me the orphanage's well-stocked medicine cabinet.

All I have heard about medicines to treat HIV/AIDS is that they are expensive and hard to obtain. When I asked how difficult it was to get these medicines, the answer was not what I expected: "Not difficult at all. Whenever we run out, we tell the local hospital and they send more. It is all because of the Bush Grant".

What she referred to as the "Bush Grant" is the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. It was set in motion during the 2003 State of the Union Address when President George W. Bush proposed the following: