Summer camp is a big part of being a kid in the USA. Parents get some child free time by sending kids off to summer camp, and children make friends, learn independence and develop other skills.
For the last three decades One Heartland, a camp in Minnesota, has provided a space for kids are living with HIV to connect and spend time together.
The Minnesota Star Tribune has shared the news that the camp will be closing down because nowadays, thanks to medical advancements, so few children are being born with HIV or contracting the virus.
In the USA the number of mother’s who are living with HIV who pass the virus on to their newborns is now less than one percent. The dramatically different figures to those recorded in the 1980s and 1990s is attributed to improvements in antiretroviral medications.
On a global scale the number of children living with HIV is also rapidly declining. The World Health Organisation says new infections among children up to the age of 14 have also declined by 38% since 2015, and AIDS relayed deaths have also fallen by 43%.
The camp in Minnesota was founded by Neil Willenson in 1993 when he was just 22 years old. He wanted to create a space for kids living with HIV after meeting a friend’s child.
At first, they rented camp sites in different locations, but they encountered stigma and discrimination. So, with the help of generous benefactors, they bought their own property. Children were flown to Minnesota from around the world to attend the camp.
That there’s no longer a need for the camp’s original purpose “is the greatest story that I ever could have imagined,” Willenson told the newspaper. “It’s something I never could have predicted.”
Head across to the The Minnesota Star Tribune to read this story.
