A HOME FOR abandoned children dying from AIDS has opened its own school because the youngsters have been barred from attending regular classes elsewhere.
Three five- and six-year-olds are currently following lessons in the unique pre-school just founded at the House of Refuge in Belo Horizonte, where HIV-infected street children and their babies are taken in and cared for by Youth With A Mission workers.
The children's teacher is funded by a local Baptist church which also supplies classroom supplies for the school, run five mornings a week at the home. Apart from special precautions for dealing with playtime accidents - because of the dangers of infected blood - the school runs " just like any other", according to Jeannette Lukasse, who with her husband, Johan, directs YWAM's street children ministry in the city.
The House of Refuge - in a residential part of the city - was opened three years ago to care for some of the many street children who contract AIDS through sex or drug use, and the infected babies born to them.
A growing number of Brazil's estimated six million homeless children are believed to be carrying the HIV virus, with poor health from living in the streets weakening their resistance to the onset of full-blown AIDS.
The new school - believed to be the only one of its kind - was established after the children were turned away from other schools. "The teachers told us they could not accept them," said Lukasse. "One teacher, a mother herself, said she would take her own kids out of school if we sent ours. The heads begged us not to send our children because they feared many more parents would keep their children away once they knew.
"Some schools offered us a separate room in their school, but our children would not be allowed to play with the others. Wethought this would be too hard for them. They would feel the rejection - which is very often much harder to deal with than the illness."
In addition to their regular school lessons, the pupils and other youngsters in the house are also taught "a lot about heaven", said Lukasse. "We talk with them more about dying than you would a healthy child, to help prepare them better. We tell them about God and his love for them. We find that when their time comes to die, they are peaceful - they know where they are going."
Nine children have died since the House of Refuge was opened - most recently an 18-month-old baby - "all peacefully, in the arms of family members or staff". Most have survived much longer than doctors predicted.
"When we took in our first children we were told that they would not survive two months, but some are still with us," said Lukasse.
The school may be expanded if the children remain well - "it really depends if they keep surviving. If they get older we will start other classes. The school will grow with them, according to their needs" - or families with AIDS children ask to be accepted too.
"We were sad that we had to take this step, but glad that we are able to keep them under our wings so we can protect them from further rejection. They have already gone through so much - more than enough."
Last updated: 1996, May 31 /pf