I have written extensively about my relationship with HIV and Clinica de Familia Summer Camp on this blog and, most recently, in an interview on Forbes. It is no surprise then that, a few times a year, I have to make a plea to friends, family, and random strangers to help ensure that the work we do can keep on going.

While Clinica de Familia Summer Camp is only two weeks long, it serves as the launch pad for the year round work of the clinic, Adolescent Support Group, and other services for our pediatric AIDS patients. Camp doesn’t just happen. It take thousands of hours of planning, coordinating, and interviewing. We raise tens of thousands of dollars to pay for rental of the location, supplies, payment of our Dominican staff, medications, medical supplies, food, etc. By being smart about how we spend we have been able to lower the cost to us per child from almost $500 to only $300 (camp is free for all campers). That includes food, medications, all camp activities, basic hygiene supplies, sheets, and extra clothing. It is awesome that we have been able to make camp better and bigger, while also making it more affordable.

This year I have based my fundraising efforts around one camper – Esmeralda. Esmeralda was the first camper I ever met. In August 2009, I was sitting on a little wall in the clinics main entrance. It was a few hours before the campers were due to arrive. We were loading up the buses, making bag lunches for the ride, and in an overall state of chaos. Into that chaos marched a little girl dragging a tiny suitcase and carrying an equally tiny dog that I am positive she had just picked up off of the street. When we returned to the clinic one week later and began off-loading the buses and reuniting care-givers with campers, an old man grabbed my mom by the arm and pulled her aside. My mom, who speaks no spanish, asked a fellow volunteer and me to translate. The man introduced himself as Esmeralda’s grandfather. With tears in his eyes he thanked us. He said Esmeralda’s family was torn apart by AIDS and that looking forward to this week was the only thing that kept her going.

Fast forward to the present and Esmeralda is barely recognizable. She has grown a foot, is keeping up with her ARV’s, working hard in school, and has great friends from camp that she keeps up with year-round. At the beginning of camp this summer a nurse pulled me aside and told me that she had done a house visit to Esmeralda’s a few weeks before. As soon as she arrived, Esmeralda rushed to pull a folder out from under her bed. In it was a collection of artwork, photos, awards, and certificates that she had kept from her previous three summers. They were her treasures.

In a few years Esmeralda will have aged out of CDF Summer Camp. In a few more years after that she will, hopefully, be a mentor rather than a member of the Adolescent Support Group. I hope that she will follow in the footsteps of Ruth, a former camper, who is now a counselor and received a 4-yr scholarship to university in the Dominican Republic. I have many dreams for Esmeralda.

The reality of the situation is that there is a lot that could get in the way of those dreams. Almost 20% of Dominican women have their first child by 20, domestic violence is considered an epidemic, and Esmeralda’s HIV+ status stigmatizes her. Camp is our battle ground. Over two weeks every summer we get the opportunity to set Esmeralda up for success. Without those two weeks she doesn’t have a community of likeminded individuals, a support group of mentors, or a place to thrive uninhibited by fear.

Be Esmeralda’s Hope.

Donate directly (please specify “Clinica de Familia Summer Camp” in the special instructions box) or email esmeraldashope1@gmail.com to find out how you can get a bracelet to show your support for Esmeralda and all pediatric AIDS patients.