From the Washington Post:
They are cheering and clapping and calling his name, but the boy in the corner won’t budge.
In front of him, eight children stand elbow to elbow on a rainbow-colored carpet. The adults at the group therapy session in Northwest Washington say: Tell us what makes you celebrate. The boy stares at his khakis, refusing to look up, even after a friend tries to coax him into the giggling fray.
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On this chilly night early last month, the 9-year-old has traveled across town to the District’s only community-based program for children affected by HIV and AIDS. Some have lost a parent. Others were infected by their mothers at birth and are living with the disease themselves.
After a day in fourth grade, the boy is tired and drawn. He comes from a family where two generations have been infected with HIV.
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Soon, he will leave Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care’s bustling townhouse filled with finger paints and dinosaur books and trek home to a desolate area east of the Anacostia River that has become the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in the nation’s capital.
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