Editor,

There is a serious issue that needs to be clarified so that people who aren’t at fault here are not given any of the blame. I am a university student in the United States who visited the mentioned orphans while working in Rwanda.

I am the one who made the website and I am the one who should be held accountable for the mistake I made in citing the statistic as one particular only to Rwanda, rather than to the entire continent of Africa.

I did verify the statistic that "Every 14 seconds, AIDS turns a child into an orphan” across Africa. I made a mistake in limiting that to Rwanda.

I shut down the website immediately after hearing of this article, as I lost the document where it was saved when my computer crashed and was unable to correct the mistake I made. And that is why it no longer exists.

My sincerest apologies for the issues this has caused and I beg you to not blame the wrong people in this situation. I am the only one who can be blamed.

Regards,

Heather McClure