Annual cost of AIDS orphans revealed

Some US $1 billion is needed annually to address the needs of AIDS orphans in Africa, UN and African Union (AU) officials said on Thursday, the 'Day of the African Child'. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), each child would need at least $300 a year to pay for schooling, food, clothes and healthcare. An estimated two out of every 10 children have been orphaned by the disease. UNICEF's adviser on children and AIDS, Douglas Webb, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "But what we don't know at the moment is where the money is coming from." The AU commissioner for social affairs, Bience Gawanas, accused African governments of failing the continent's children by not living up to commitments to put children at the heart of their policies.