Hope amid the gloom

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said in a report released on Thursday that by the year 2010, the number of AIDS orphans in 34 of the most affected countries in the world is expected to reach 44 million. “The human and social costs these estimates represent are staggering. The challenges faced by children, families, communities and their governments in managing the impact of HIV/AIDS will be enormous. And their message is unmistakable. The world community must unite in compassionate response and care,” the report ‘Children on the Brink’ said. A long-term problem Speaking at the release of the report at the international AIDS conference in Durban, co-author Susan Hunter said that the problem of HIV/AIDS orphans was long term and that it was likely to be a chronic problem for at least the first third of this century, reaching “unusually high levels by 2030”. In at least eight sub-Saharan African countries, between 20 and 35 percent of children under 15 have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. By 2010, 11 countries will reach this rate, the USAID report said. In countries such as Botswana, AIDS orphans already account for an estimated 9.8 percent of the total orphan population. In Zambia it is a staggering 61.2 percent. In total, USAID estimates that AIDS orphans account for 10.4 percent of all orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. By losing one or both parents, African children are being denied basic human rights, including love, attention and access to education. On losing a parent or parents, children can be forced into situations of emotional and sexual abuse, as well as exploitation of their labour in the informal sector or even households. Girls in particular are more likely to be disadvantaged and marginalised. Often when a parent dies or falls ill it is the girl in the family that is the first to be removed from school. She becomes the primary care giver to the parent, and when that parent dies, becomes the primary care giver and provider for her siblings, the report said. New initiatives The social services in sub-Saharan Africa are simply not equipped to deal with the crisis, with the result that many families are being left to flounder and find mechanisms of coping on their own. But despite the message of doom and gloom, there are suggestions of hope that were heard in Durban on how communities themselves are starting to care for AIDS orphans. One such initiative comes from northern Malawi, where a small community has taken an active stance on looking after AIDS orphans living among them. The Ekwendeni Hospital Programme services a community of about 50,000 people. It has 3,972 orphans, a large majority of whom are AIDS orphans. Carol Finlay, a representative from the programme, said in Durban that the idea behind the project was to actively encourage the community to take on the responsibility of caring for the orphans themselves, and in so doing develop a sustainable response to a problem for which as yet there is no solution in sight. She said that within the community there are a number of community-based child care programmes where AIDS orphans are cared for. “The programmes look after their physical needs in terms of providing basic health care, giving the children one hot meal a day. But it also takes care of their emotional needs and helps to integrate them into the community and helps lift the stigma and prejudice that many of them had faced,” she said. Brenda Yamba Muyila said that similar schemes are being implemented across Zambia. She noted that people had realised that if they did not take care of the AIDS orphans themselves, nobody else would. “The communities work with what they have. They might not have the huge financial resources at their disposal, but they have resources in terms of helping to feed children and care for them. We have to find new alternatives of looking after these children,” she said. Another important intervention highlighted during the conference is that children have to be empowered to care for themselves in the absence of care givers. Delegates said that could be done through micro-financing projects and skills training. Linked to this is the idea that governments need to provide an enabling environment where children actually feel protected and that encourages people to care for AIDS orphans.