By 2001, statistics from UNAIDS revealed that AIDS had killed one or both parents of 13.4 million children still under the age of 15. The ranks of these children will soon be swelled by millions of additional others who are living with sick and dying parents. This tragedy continues to worsen as AIDS continues to kill ever larger numbers of people.
By 2010, the total number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS is expected to nearly double to 25 million. HIV/AIDS has killed more people in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world, and the vast majority of orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS are also in this region.
Children suffer profoundly as their parents fall sick or die. Their experience is often characterized by:
- Psychosocial distress. Their parents’ illness and death causes extreme psychosocial distress – worsened by the pervasive stigma and shame attached to HIV/AIDS.
- Economic hardship. With parents unable to work and savings spent on care, children are forced to take on the frightening adult responsibility of supporting the family.
- Withdrawal from school. The pressures of earning for and caring for parents and siblings can lead children to withdraw from school, even while their parents are living. The pressures to abandon schooling intensify when one or both parents die.
- Malnutrition and illness. Orphans and other affected children are more likely to be malnourished or to fall ill – and less likely to get the medical care they need. Poverty is the root cause, but neglect and discrimination by adults in whose care they have been left are also important factors.
- Loss of inheritance. Orphans are regularly cheated out of their inheritance.
- Fear and isolation. Dispossessed orphans are often forced out to unfamiliar and hostile places.
- Increased abuse and increased risk of HIV. Impoverished and without parents to educate and protect them, orphans and affected children face every kind of abuse and risk, including HIV infection. Many are forced into exploitative and dangerous work – including exchanging sex for money, food, ‘protection’ or shelter.
Institutionalised care for orphans and vulnerable children is not an appropriate option. We believe that resources are more effectively used in strengthening the abilities of families and communities to care for orphaned and affected children in their midst. SPAU believes that where institutional care is offered, programmes must be developed to integrate the children back into their communities at the earliest opportunity.
SPAU is supporting the efforts of a local group of women in Muzinda, Nsangi sub-county to provide care and support for up to 40 orphans and vulnerable children. This care includes dietary assistance, school stationery, basic sanitation materials and micro income generating projects. We are currently laying down plans to sustain food security for the biggest number of orphans and vulnerable children under this initiative.