Plight of orphans and vulnerable children highlighted

There's growing awareness among policymakers in Swaziland that a burgeoning orphan population created by AIDS is fundamentally changing the nature of their society. A National Draft Policy on Children, including orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), is in the works and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Swaziland met with government representatives on Wednesday to assess the country's OVC programmes. "An orphan is defined as a child under the age of 18 who has lost his or her parents, while a vulnerable child is also under 18 and is in a risky situation where he or she may suffer significant physical, emotional or mental harm. Swaziland is seeing a stark rise in the number of orphans because of AIDS, and children are at risk of HIV infection from sexual abuse," said Jabu Dlamini, a community projects coordinator in the office of the deputy prime minster. Projections are that by 2010 there will be 110,000 orphaned children in a population of roughly 900,000. Education was emphasised in the child welfare policy draft as both an essential right for children and a way to slow the transmission of AIDS. "Seventy percent of Swazi girls who are not in school are sexually active, compared to 30 percent of Swazi girls in school who are sexually active. Also, schools provide venues to teach children to recognise and safeguard themselves against sexual abuse that can result in HIV infections," said one health official. Educationalists have noted that government's desire to provide free primary education to all children remained an unfulfilled goal, but Dlamini reported progress in community education and school feeding schemes. "One hundred and six communities have been mobilised, so that they are now aware of the needs of vulnerable children in their areas. Thirty new community schools in the Lubombo and 14 in the Shiselweni region have been established, with 29,000 children overall, and 4,000 OVC in particular, benefiting. School farms have been set up in 80 schools, and 11 schools have been outfitted with water and sanitation," Dlamini said. Another innovation during the past year had been the establishment of 87 out of a projected 164 Neighbourhood Care Points, where the nutritional, medical and counselling needs of 6,171 children were being met. The care points were placed in areas with a high percentage of OVC. The residence of one chief was converted into a rural care point five months ago, and 200 children were receiving their only substantial meal of the day there. Care points were also used to propagate awareness of child abuse and HIV. "When we deal with orphans and vulnerable children, we must promote a rights-based approach for our interventions, emphasising the right to food, clothing, shelter, education, health and psychosocial care," said consultant John Rwomushana, of the Uganda AIDS Commission. "Swaziland is a relatively rich county compared to its neighbours. The people here have the will, and can create the capacity, to safeguard its orphan population against AIDS," Rwomushana told IRIN. The issue of child rights is often a difficult concept for conservative Swazis to embrace. "A child has an absolute right to say no to an adult - even a parent - if the child is in danger of sexual abuse," said Thobile Dlamini, executive director of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA). A newly released study by SWAGAA of 1,400 students in 52 schools found that 15.3 percent of Swaziland's school children had been victims of sexual abuse. Half the abused children were aged between 10 and 15 years. The National Draft Policy on Children is to go to the Ministry of Health for consideration by parliament.