January 9, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
As an American child living in Zimbabwe, Alexandra Govere, now 15, says she tried to do what little
she could to help the many AIDS orphans who approached her on the streets. She especially remembers the time she gave a coin to a boy, then watched in horror as he was suddenly encircled by a mass of other children seeking the coin.
That incident made her realize how much value even the tiniest donation could have — and made her vow to do more.
“The whole experience of seeing them stare at you or cry is very touching,” says Alexandra, a high-school junior in Palo Alto, Calif., whose father is a native of Zimbabwe. “Their biggest need is acceptance and love because AIDS is a taboo in a lot of African communities: You are an outcast, and people don’t want to be around you.” In Zimbabwe alone, approximately 780,000 children are orphans because their parents died of AIDS, and 240,000 children under 14 have the disease, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
Upon moving back to the United States in 1996 after five and a half years living in Africa, where her parents had teaching jobs, Alexandra and her sister, Saunsuray, 12, started collecting clothing, toys, and school supplies to send to children in Zimbabwe and five other African countries. Alexandra’s parents have contributed about $500 to help pay for shipping the boxes and making phone calls to Africa.
With each shipment she mails, Alexandra includes a disposable camera and asks recipients to send photos of the donated products in use so she knows the toys and clothing are not being stolen or misused.
Operating as the Kijana Project (kijana means teenager in Swahili), Alexandra does her charitable work under the umbrella of Youth Venture, in Arlington, Va., a charity that supports young people’s endeavors.
Alexandra says she has big plans for expansion, including developing peer-to-peer education programs to teach young people how to protect themselves from AIDS.
To pay for such efforts, Alexandra has raised $2,700 so far.
As the project’s leader, Alexandra says, she can have an immediate impact on the cause that concerns her most. “If I were a part of another organization, it would be harder to make sure everything I want to do gets done,” she says. “I like being able to see change happen and know that I helped that change.”
