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Woodside helps load aid for Zimbabwe

Children from Woodside Elementary School recently helped load a 40-foot-long ocean container, parked at the school, with medical supplies, clothing, toys and school supplies for children suffering from HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe.

Diane Eskenazi of Woodside and her Woodside-based nonprofit Peace Builders Inc. organized the effort.

Goods valued in excess of $500,000 included 100,000 pieces of new children's clothes and shoes, donated by Gymboree, which operates children's apparel stores; medical supplies from Medshare and the Oakland Children's Hospital; and 3,600 backpacks filled with school supplies from Office Depot via Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization, Ms. Eskenazi said.

The shipment, loaded on Feb. 17, is going to the Harare Children's Hospital in Zimbabwe. Along with the supplies are 200 colorful friendship heart letters, created by Woodside schoolchildren, with messages of "love and caring" for the sick children in Zimbabwe, Ms. Eskenazi said.

AIDS affects more than 40 percent of the population of Zimbabwe, she said.

Peace Builders, Ms. Eskenazi's organization, has shipped more than $65 million in medical and other aid to orphans and for disaster relief around the world, she said.

Go to www.buildpeace.com for more information about Peace Builders.