Exhibit at Los Angeles church offers personal look at AIDS orphans in Africa

But the figure alone cannot begin to convey the toll of a pandemic that continues to punish vast swaths of the continent. For that, consider the stories of four children featured in an interactive exhibit -- "World Vision Experience: AIDS" -- at Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles.

Visitors, walking through a replica of an African village, view the children's pictures and listen on headsets to their harrowing tales.

There is 14-year-old Babirye of Uganda. The HIV-positive girl watches her father die and her mother grow weak from the disease, all along wondering if she could be next.

And Mathabo, an 11-year-old girl who faces hunger and danger alone in the highlands of Lesotho.

Twelve-year-old Kombo, who is also HIV-positive, lives with his grandmother at a truck stop along the "AIDS Highway" in Kenya. He is frightened not only by the "big trucks" but also by "the big disease."

And then there is Emmanuel of Uganda who, with his 11-year-old brother, Fred, must bury their mother in a banana grove and fend for themselves in the wild after heavy rains destroy their flimsy hut. He is 6.

Emmanuel, sleeping in the same banana grove where his mother is buried, fears the wild animals all around. Most of all, he dreads the thought of dying from the same disease that claimed both his parents.

"Fred and I have suffered so long," Emmanuel says through the headsets. "What will happen to me if I'm HIV-positive? . . . Oh God, take care of us."

The free exhibit was created by World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization that provides assistance to children and families in 100 countries. World Vision officials, quoting United Nations statistics, said 90% of children worldwide who have AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Visitors say they leave the exhibit feeling somber and alarmed by the impact of AIDS on its most vulnerable victims.

"I'm amazed. You actually see how they live," said Julia Persaud, 78, a Holman member, after she took the tour this week. "There's so much HIV. Hopefully there will be a cure."

The exhibit is on display at Holman church, in the West Adams district, through Monday. It will be at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village from Friday to Aug. 26 and at New Life Christian Center in Turlock, Calif., Sept. 18-23.