A grandmother in Voi, Kenya, prays for a better future for her HIV-positive grandson. World Vision Gift Catalogue shoppers are helping to answer her prayers by funding a program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Photo Credit: Robert Coronado/World Vision.

If Tom Cochrane chose to live anywhere other than Canada, he would probably choose Kenya.

"It's such a beautiful place," says the quintessential Canadian rocker, who was recently named to the Order of Canada for both his music and his humanitarian work.

"And the people are wonderful," he adds. "They're just wonderful people."

But while he's in awe of its majesty and the warmth of its people, Cochrane - who went to Kenya in 2003 with World Vision - is also troubled by the pandemic affecting this East African nation.

In Voi, an area where he spent much of his visit, one in every 10 people has HIV or AIDS.

Cochrane particularly remembers 30-year-old Margaret and her two children.

Margaret was dying of AIDS and being cared for by her 10-year-old daughter. Since she was born before her mother became infected, the little girl had not contracted AIDS at birth.

Baby Hope, however, wasn't so lucky. Because Margaret couldn't afford drugs that would prevent transmission of her virus, she'd inadvertently passed HIV onto the infant - either during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding.

Such a tragedy is far from unusual, according to Timothy Musombi, an HIV and AIDS coordinator with World Vision Kenya.

"More than 90 per cent of new HIV infections in infants and young children occur as a result of mother-to-child transmission," he explains.

However, with adequate medication, the risk of transmission from mothers to children can be drastically reduced.

"Mother-to-child transmission has been virtually eliminated in developed countries," Musombi says. "And yet every day in poor countries, more than 1,300 children become infected with HIV through their mothers."

Unable to accept the unfairness of Hope's situation, Cochrane immediately began writing once he got home.

First, he wrote a song, "A Prayer for Hope." Then, he wrote a letter to his local MP, urging the Canadian government to permit the manufacture of affordable, generic versions of critical antiretroviral drugs to spare other children from Hope's fate.

The efforts of Cochrane and his fellow activists paid off. In 2004, Canada became one of the first countries to pass legislation that allows African nations such as Kenya to import affordable antiretroviral drugs.

And now, thanks to Canadians using World Vision's Gift Catalogue, Cochrane's prayer for the mothers and children of Voi is being answered.

Through funding from Gift Catalogue supporters, World Vision is helping pregnant women with HIV to successfully avoid passing the virus onto their children. In conjunction with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, it's working to deliver and dispense antiretroviral drugs to help curb the spread of HIV.

Cochrane is excited by these new developments in a place that's been so inspiring to him personally and professionally. They remind him, he says, of a particular verse from "A Prayer for Hope":

Mercy, mercy we need more like you
Mercy your light shines in the dark corners
Mercy more just like you with your light shining through
A song for Margaret
A prayer for Hope

For more information on how you can pay for mother-to-child HIV and AIDS prevention ($75), go to www.worldvision.ca .

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