July 2, 2007VOL. 45, NO. 13Oakland, CA

Oakland parish gives vitamins to
HIV-AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe

Betty Kennedy-Tapscott (left) of Oakland’s St. Benedict Parish and Mother Jean Cornneck, founder and administrator of Mother of Peace Orphanage, are surrounded by some of the 130 children who live at the orphanage.

Father James Matthews, pastor of St. Benedict Parish, greets some of the orphans after he celebrated Mass at the orphanage.

By Jane Doe
Special to the Voice

By Carrie McClish
Staff writer

Betty Kennedy-Tapscott told her grandchildren that she only wanted one thing last Christmas: vitamins.

When she received a large bag filled with multi-vitamins, she promptly donated it to her parish’s outreach project – assisting patients with HIV/AIDS at the Mother of Peace Orphanage in Mutoko, Zimbabwe.

A member at Oakland’s St. Benedict Parish, Kennedy-Tapscott visited the orphanage for the first time this spring and witnessed firsthand how important the multi-vitamins are to the project.

“I saw a doctor in tears – a young, 40-something year old doctor – because he had run out of vitamins,” she said. Vitamins are a necessary and important part in a patient’s anti-retroviral treatments for HIV/AIDS, she explained. “That’s why I am forever asking for vitamins.”

The orphanage was founded in the mid-1990s to care for children who’ve lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. About 20 percent of the over 130 children at the facility have been diagnosed with the virus, said Kennedy-Tapscott. She traveled to Zimbabwe with her pastor, Father James Matthews, and JoElla and Percy Julien of nearby St. Paschal Parish. They accompanied Dr. Robert Scott, an internist and a volunteer at the orphanage through the AIDS Ministry at Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland.

Although the founders of Mother of Peace are Catholic, the orphanage is open to all children, Kennedy-Tapscott said. The facility, which includes a medical clinic and school, draws its financial and moral support from people of various denominations. Oakland’s St. Lawrence O’Toole Parish and Corpus Christi Parish in Piedmont are among them.

There are never enough supplies. To help provide a continuous supply of vitamins and other medicines, parishioners at St. Benedict’s conducted a drive for multi-vitamins last fall and held “pill-packing parties.” Dr. Scott and a team of volunteers who go to Zimbabwe every three months take the packages with them to the orphanage.

Without the Mother of Peace community, many of the children would have faced a bleak future. Often relatives of the children are not able to take care of them or don’t want them, Kennedy-Tapscott said.

“You have to realize that Zimbabwe is a very poor country. Some of these children have been found in latrines or in vacant houses with abusive people. They probably would have died.”

At Mother of Peace “everyone cares for the children” in several houses where they live under the supervision of “house mothers” and their assistants, Kennedy-Tapscott said. Every child is clothed, fed and has the space to run and play and be a kid. “I was just impressed by how happy the children were – they knew they were blessed.”

St. Benedict Parish continues to collect vitamins and other medicines. Persons wishing to donate, can contact the parish at (510) 632-1847.

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