UNICEF warns of social services collapse due to AIDS

Ethiopia will face a collapse in “social services, governance and safety nets” within a decade because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned. Traditional ways of coping with orphans by integrating children into extended families are being eroded because of the scale of the crisis, UNICEF head for Ethiopia Bjorn Ljungqvist said. Ljungqvist spoke out on Tuesday at an HIV/AIDS orphans conference in Addis Ababa, which is being held in conjunction with the ministry of labour and social affairs. He told delegates at the two-day conference that eastern and southern Africa is facing an explosion in children orphaned by the virus – but added that it can be tackled. There are some 13 million AIDS orphans in the world, and 12 million of those are in sub-Saharan Africa. Around one million children have been orphaned in Ethiopia. “This rapid increase of children orphaned or made vulnerable because of HIV/AIDS is affecting the traditional ways of caring and protecting children who have lost their parents,” Ljungqvist said. “The effect of this HIV/AIDS-induced process is a gradual but usually rapid erosion of the social, economic, and emotional security of the children affected," he stated. According to UNICEF, Ethiopia is in the “early stages” of a breakdown of social services and carers looking after AIDS orphans. “What we will see repeating itself is the familiar picture where the increase of HIV infections in the population will be followed - after a period of 5-10 years – of an increase in AIDS orphans,” Ljungqvist warned. “Then, after an additional 5-10 years, the full social impact with the breakdown of social services, governance and safety nets - what we now notice in many southern African countries,” he said. Ljungqvist said that a "child minding" system could be used to monitor children and ensure they are cared for. He also called for developing a system whereby foster families can receive help if they cannot cope with the extra burden of looking after an AIDS orphan.