UDONTHANI, Thailand -- A group of Marines and Sailors, participating in Exercise Cobra Gold '04 here, traveled to a small village to pay a special visit to special children, May 20.
Navy Lt. Shaun Brown, Marine Aircraft Group 12 chaplain, and Petty Officer 1st Class Delores M. Davis-Stewart, MAG-12 religious program specialist, invited seven Marines and Sailors to travel to the remote village of Donwai, located approximately one mile away from the border of Laos, to the Sarnelli House, a home for orphans who are HIV positive.
The orphanage gives a home to 54 HIV positive children. Their ages range from 4 months to 15 years old.
"The Sarnelli House was opened in 1999 for children who tested positive for HIV or AIDS. The children living here receive anti-retroviral AIDS drugs, food, clothing and most importantly, love," said Father Michael J. Shea, Catholic priest and supervisor of the orphanage.
Shea, who has been stationed in Thailand for 38 years, has worked with orphans and widows his entire stay here.
"Here, in the northeast of Thailand, is the only place where HIV infected children come. The children are orphans because their parents died of AIDS and they have no one else to take care of them. Their families don't seem to want anything to do with them, so they bring them here. Here we happily take them in," added Shea.
Funding for the orphanage comes from various organizations in the United States and in Germany, and some from the Thai government.
The Thai government allows the children to attend public schools. Although the children must attend in anonymity, for fear of the students' parents.
"If people were to find out that their children are attending school with children who are HIV positive, who knows what could happen," stated Shea. "We want the children to try to have a normal life."
The children are happy and comfortable as much as they can possibly be, considering the circumstances. They are also responding well to the medicine they receive, added Shea.
The children jumped with excitement to see the service members arrive. The Marines and Sailors brought along clothes, toys and candy to give to the orphanage.
"It's very humbling to see these beautiful children and knowing that they have a disease, said Davis-Stewart. "I have two children in the same age group as the orphans here, and it just makes me think how unfortunate it is for them."
"I didn't know that all the children were HIV positive. It just makes me feel more appreciative of all the things I have. Experiencing this and seeing these children made me think of my daughter back home," said Staff Sgt. Jabari A. McDonald, Marine (All-Weather) Fighter Attack Squadron 225 communication navigation technician.
"The orphans live in solitude and in isolation," said Shea. "They are outcast to their own country and even to the world. Yet their ignorance to the world and their disease, being that they are so young, make them far more precious. All they have in the world is me, the orphanage staff of 16 and each other."
Donations can be sent to Reverend Patrick O'Brien at the Sarnelli House, C.Ss.R. Redemptorist Mission Office, P.O. Box 6, Glenview, Illinois 60025-0006.
For more information, contact Chaplain Brown at 253-3971.