Focus on new orphan crisis

Civil war created Mozambique's first orphan crisis. A decade on, the country is threatened by a new emergency which is much more devastating and much harder to solve. In 16-years of civil war, 200,000 children were torn from their homes. After the signing of the 1992 General Peace Accord, most of them were reunited with their families or foster parents. Today, HIV/AIDS has already left an estimated 418,000 children orphaned, according to UNAIDS figures. The extent of the crisis is defying traditional coping mechanisms. The country's official HIV infection rate stands at 12.2 percent, but some aid workers say the figure is more like 17 percent with over 600 new infections everyday. Most of those infected are poor with little access to quality medical care for opportunistic infections, let alone access to antiretroviral drugs. Thus the numbers of orphans is likely to escalate further. A British aid worker, who did not wish to be named but has worked in Mozambique for the past 16 years, told PlusNews this week that he was pessimistic about the current orphan situation. "During the war there was a stable reintegration programme to reunite orphans with their extended family or with foster families, but children orphaned by HIV/AIDS are regarded as an insupportable burden on families," said the aid worker. "There are some incidences where it can work, but not on a large scale as many of those who could foster are also sick or dying of AIDS. The ratio of those available to absorb orphaned children and those who are orphaned doesn't work." Those who are saddled with the responsibility of looking after children orphaned by AIDS, some of whom might also be infected, are the grandmothers or older siblings. "To survive, these children are often no longer seen as children but as producers, which means they must drop out of school," the aid worker said. Only about 46 percent of orphans attend school in Mozambique, according to the UNAIDS report. "Because of the AIDS situation, we're returning back to relief operations rather than development work. It is a massive step backwards," said the aid worker. Life expectancy will drop dramatically due to AIDS. Some estimate from the current early 40s to around the late 20s, further increasing the number of children orphaned by AIDS in the near future. One remarkable Mozambican woman who has fostered both children from the war and children orphaned by AIDS is Berta Francisca Castro. She lives in Dondo, a railway town in the central province of Sofala, where AIDS has hit particularly hard. There are no worldly possessions inside Castro's home, just a bed, pots and pans and water containers. But her homestead - as modest as it is – has provided a family life for orphans over the past two decades. Besides her house, she opened a school, also made out of local material, called "Nhatua Zamala", which means "the suffering is finished". But maybe the name is too optimistic now. In those days, when Castro first took in children, most orphans she cared for lost their parents during the war. Most, she said, were reunited with members of their extended family by the time the peace accord was signed. The 15 children who did not find their own families continue to live with Castro. But she can no longer open her small home to all the orphans in her neighbourhood. There are just too many, she explained as she walked around pointing to numerous huts where the parents had died. AIDS has already taken Castro's sister-in-law and her brother. They left four children each who now live with her. She has also opened her home to a family of orphans whose house was burnt down by someone in the community. The eldest girl, 15, is sick with diarrhoea and fevers. She said she does not know what illness she has, but she has lost a lot of weight. Castro regularly visits a boy called Devos, who is representative of the new orphans of Mozambique. His parents died when he was just 11 years old and since then he has headed his household. He dropped out of school three years ago to eke out a meagre living for him and his three younger brothers and sisters. First he lugged heavy bags for passengers at the Dondo train station and now he buys and sells chickens, which give him a bit more money. But that day, the family of children had not eaten and it was mid afternoon. So far Devos has managed to keep his younger sister in school. And Devos hopes to return to his studies one day. "I want to study to be hospital director when I grow up so I can finish with this sickness that exists," he said. "The sickness is finishing off my people."