Photo Finish: World AIDS Day

2:47 PM on 12/01/2012

The White House in Washington is decorated with a red ribbon to commemorate World Aids Day, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

With today marking the 25^th anniversary of World AIDS day, it is a time for us all to continue the fight to find a cure for this horrific disease that is affecting thousands throughout the world.

The Obama administration marked the anniversary with a tone of optimism that we are on our way to finding a cure. “We have made great strides in combating this disease, and an AIDS-free generation is within sight,” President Obama said in a statement.

This Photo Finish post is dedicated to the special village of Nyumbani in Kenya, where hundreds of children who were orphaned after losing their parents to AIDS. The village was born out of the work of Father Angelo D’Agostino and Sister Mary Owens, who began the Nyumbani Orphanage in 1992 to serve the needs of the affected children from the AIDS pandemic.

The success of the orphanage led to the creation of the village which serves both orphans and the elders impacted by the disease. In honor of World Aids Day and the lives we have lost this post is to recognize the spirit of hope from the Nymbani Village.

Young schoolboys play in the shade of trees during break in the yard of the Hot Courses Primary School, in the village of Nyumbani which caters to children who lost their parents to HIV, and grandparents who lost their children to HIV, with the bookend generations taking care of one another, in Kenya. (Photo: AP/Ben Curtis)

Children attend morning assembly in the yard of the Hot Courses Primary School. (Photo: AP/Ben Curtis)

A worker waters a seedling of the Melia Volkensii tree after planting it in the hope that after a number of years the village can harvest the hardwood for timber and become self-sustaining. (Photo: AP/Ben Curtis)