According to a recent UN report, more women are now infected with HIV/Aids than men and more than 40 million people, globally are now living with the disease. Around the world, 5m people were newly infected with the virus in the past year and almost 25% of these were children under the age of 15.

Southern Africa remains at the epicentre of the Aids disaster: an estimated 30% of the adult population in four countries – Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe are infected with HIV/AIDS. The UNAids states: “In four southern African countries, national adult HIV prevalence has risen higher than thought possible. The food crises faced in three of these are linked to the toll of their longstanding HIV/Aids epidemics, especially on the lives of young, productive adults.” The report, entitled Aids Epidemic Update 2002, warns that worse is still to come.

Officials have also warned of major epidemics in Eastern Europe, China and India unless action is taken to tackle the disease.

However, among the growing tally of HIV infections, there have been some success stories – in Brazil, for example, where prevention programmes have had a massive impact, and in African countries such as Ethiopia and South Africa.

The following is an extract from Henry’s website which has lots of interesting links and provides much background to this memorable trip to Molokai. To find out more info, take a look at: Just for background, one of Molokai’s famous past residents, Father Damien, was a Belgium priest who dedicated a large part of his life caring for and helping people suffering from leprosy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Knights of Columbus, Kamiano (Damien) Council 11743 of Waikiki had arranged a round trip flight from Honolulu to Molokai for a nostalgic exploration of Father Damien’s Settlement. One can normally expect to be quoted a fare in excess of $200 for a Kalaupapa tour but the Knights of Columbus chartered a plane to fly round trip Honolulu to Molokai and that resulted in a savings which also included a bonus flight seeing air tour of the spectacular Molokai cliffs all the way to the east end of the island and back.

The weather was good after nearly a week of heavy rain and overcast skies. The trade winds were back with winds ENE at 15-25mph and it was now visibility unlimited.

We boarded our 9-passenger, twin engine Piper Chieftain for a 1200 departure and a fifty-minute flight that not only took us past downtown Honolulu and over the Norwegian Star, Waikiki and Diamond Head but over Koko Head and across the 22-mile wide Molokai Channel to the west end of Molokai and past Papohaku Beach, the longest sand beach in Hawaii. Then its along the north shore of Molokai until we see the low-lying Kalaupapa Peninsula jutting due north from a cliffed coast midway along the north shore. We pass the peninsula and continue east another fifteen miles past some of the highest sea cliffs (2,000′ asl) in the world. We turn around at Cape Halawa with a peek at Halawa Valley at the easternmost end of Molokai (the northwest coast of Maui can be seen nine miles away) and we then retraced our route so that persons on the left side of the aircraft might have a good view of the pali coast. We finally land at the state-owned and operated Kalaupapa Airport (LUP) with its 2700-ft runway scenically perched right along the rocky shoreline and abreast of the historic Kalaupapa Lighthouse.

At Kalaupapa Airport, located about two miles north of the settlement, we were met by Fr. Joe Hendricks, the pastor of Kalaupapa Parish and driven, by yours truly, to the settlement. Fr. Joe, who also founded the Damien Museum in Honolulu, said a mass for us at Fr. Damien’s old St. Philomena Church in Kalawao and then graciously gave us his insight into Blessed Fr. Damien’s life and labours. His story is universally known and a timeless one. We viewed his and Brother Dutton’s grave and were sure to see Mother Marianne’s last resting place, heroes all.

We drove everywhere we could and then some. Things were so quiet that we even saw deer and wild pigs in the middle of the day. The views are outstanding and the peninsula is, at least now, neat and pleasant. Re-supply is heavily by air since the barge visits but once in February each year. There are currently 43 residents who are living out their days in the settlement and one of them, Paul Harada who has been there since 1945, even gave one of our Tongan members (Zco who tells me he was named for the Tongan radio station that started operations on the day he was born) some good-looking fresh fish which were just right for sashimi. This special visit took us four hours and afterwards we reboarded our chartered plane for the return flight to Honolulu.

We flew along the northwest coast of Molokai and headed for Honolulu direct. The flight path was somewhat similar to the outgoing leg but provided interesting views, such as downtown Honolulu (photo 12), from another angle. We landed at Honolulu International Airport (HNL) and taxied back to our starting point to complete an extremely memorable experience!

The Knights of Columbus will sponsor other trips to Kalaupapa so if you are interested then click here to request further details and a schedule. Note: Passengers must be sixteen years of age as a minimum. Although the entrance to the Kalaupapa National Historical Park is free, admittance is limited to either those taking the Damien Tour or those personally invited by a resident.

If you would like any further information, please contact Henry by email: Nowicki@webtv.net

Our organization, Save the Earth Network, an entirely self funded organization (generating its income from the participation fees of our volunteers, visitors and eco-tourists) makes donations to humanitarian projects. Our partner organizations are orphanages, foster homes and a construction/ renovation organizations in Ghana. Churches, other organizations and individuals make donations to our partner organizations.

We have many volunteer opportunities and also eco-tourism opportunities to travel around Ghana. Also, in March this year we plan to start our own HIV/AIDS prevention education projects/programs in Ghana and are looking for volunteers to help in this too

People who would like to participate in any of our programs should please contact: Edgar Asare or Eben Mensah at Save the Earth Network, P.O. Box CT 3635, Cantonments, Accra, Ghana. West Africa. Tel: 233-21-667791, Fax: 233-21-669625 or e-mail Eben on: ebensten@yahoo.com.

If you would like to get in touch with some of our former volunteers from all over the world, they are happy to provide testimonials. Please contact WonHye Chung from the USA on wchung@wellesley.edu , Jane from England at dodgytie@hotmail.com, Kim from New Zealand at kimbaker73@hotmail.com or Waahida from the USA at waahida@hotmail.com