When Doug Hayes first met 6-year-old Roselyn in Uganda, she’d lost her parents to AIDS, syphilis sores covered her body and head, and her grandmother couldn’t afford medical care. Hayes brought the child to a clinic, where she quickly recovered. Roselyn is now a healthy 12-year-old. “I’ll never forget the moment I learned that the total bill for this lifesaving treatment was $4.37,” says the executive director of Covenant Mercies in Glen Mills.
Founded in 2002 by Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Covenant Mercies is an independent, faith-based nonprofit devoted to changing the lives of the needy, especially children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Africa. Working with churches in Uganda, Zambia and Ethiopia, it serves almost 1,000 orphans and provides full-time positions to adults in Africa. Its 100-plus volunteers have built homes in Uganda for kids without extended relatives as guardians, and over $1 million has been raised since the 2003 inception of its Orphan Sponsorship Program.
On May 2, 2009, Covenant Mercies will hold a benefit concert, “A Note of Hope,” featuring well-known local jazz artists. “There will always be a greater number of children we can’t serve than those we can, but the lives we’re able to touch are changed forever,” Hayes says.
To learn more, visit covenantmercies.org or call (610) 361-0606.
