|
In response to
the global crisis, the executive director of
UNICEF has said that people should focus on one
thing:
'We are not reaching the 2 billion young
people who will determine the future course of
the HIV/AIDS pandemic.' AIDS has killed 28
million people, and around 42 million are living
with HIV/AIDS. The many children and young
people who are seeing their adult caregivers
succumb to the disease are those at greatest
risk of becoming infected, she emphasised. Every
day 6 000 young people between the ages of 15
and 24 and another 2 000 below the age of
15
become HIV positive. Girls are hardest hit. The
lives of infants and young children are being
threatened. Nine out of 10 infections occur
during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding, and
are largely preventable.
The orphan crisis, particularly in sub-Saharan
Africa, is massive, growing and long-term. The
estimated
11 million AIDS orphans in the region
is expected to grow to 20 million by the close
of the decade. At the opening of
the thirteenth
International Conference on AIDS and STIs,
the
UN secretary general's special envoy for
HIV/AIDS, highlighted the theme of Access to
Care in the context of children orphaned by AIDS
and other vulnerable children.
He stated that he
chose to focus on orphaned children because they
remain perhaps the most intractable of all
issues related to care and support. The increase
in adult deaths in so many countries means that
the numbers of children orphaned each day is
growing exponentially.
“We are all struggling to
find a viable response; in the meantime,
millions of children live traumatised, unstable
lives, robbed not just of their parents, but of
their childhoods and futures,” he said. There
are simply not enough adults left to do the care
giving – no one to hand down knowledge or
experience or, more importantly, values from one
generation to another.
In a recent paper the UN World Food Programme (WFP) demonstrated how food aid can
bring hope to a generation of orphans and other
vulnerable children whose lives are scarred by
HIV/AIDS. The WFP paper, Widening the 'Window of
Hope', which is based on a study in Cote
d'Ivoire and Zambia discusses techniques such as
school feeding and take-home rations for
families affected by HIV/AIDS. It examines the
impact of HIV/AIDS on orphans and other
vulnerable children and ways that food aid can
improve their access to sound nutrition and
education enabling them to lead healthier, more
productive lives.
Even if infection rates level off, deaths from
AIDS will continue to soar and the number of
orphans may not peak until 2020. Worldwide there
are now 14 million children
under the age of 15
who have lost their mothers or both parents,
more than 90% of them living in sub-Saharan
Africa. "Perhaps we cannot give them hope for a
cure, but
we can give them time," WFP's
executive director,
James Morris said.
The paper also weighs up the strengths and
limitations of various nutritional
interventions. Through home-based care, families
with chronically ill members receive enough food
to cover their basic needs, enabling them to use
the time and money saved on education. Options
suggested in the paper include take-home
rations, food bursaries, food for work (such as
improving school buildings), and food for
training (for example HIV/AIDS education for
teachers). Given the stigma surrounding the
disease, the paper stresses caution in targeting
children affected by HIV/AIDS to avoid
compounding their suffering. Other suggestions
include closer collaboration with national
governments and NGOs, supporting community
schools, using innovative learning approaches
(such as radio listening clubs) and vocational
training courses to ensure that the maximum
number of orphans and other vulnerable children
receive some form of education. In conclusion,
the paper says the effectiveness of WFP's role
in improving access to education for orphans and
other vulnerable children depends on building
dynamic partnerships with a range
of role
players.
Strong plans for dealing with orphaned children
are emerging. They focus on eliminating school
fees, implementing school feeding programmes,
cultivating school gardens, health care for
vulnerable children, protection from sexual
violence and significant and lasting community
support. A survey of 505 religious organisations
operating
in six African nations shows that 95%
of the organisations that support orphans are
working almost entirely without outside funds.
UNICEF officials said this finding has potential
to alter the way the world fights AIDS by
encouraging more funding for small
congregations.
The survey by UNICEF and the
World Conference of Religions for Peace found
that in six southern and eastern African
countries more than
half of the religious
congregations and groups had started
to help
orphans in the past four years. The team of
researchers focused on six countries, Kenya,
Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, and
Uganda. In these countries, 12 to 17%
of all
children are orphans. Overall, sub-Saharan
Africa
has 34 million orphans, and
11 million
have lost their parents because of AIDS.
Statisticians estimate that the proportion will
rise to 50% in about 10 years. Of the 505 faith
groups, 71% provided clothing or food;
two-thirds gave school assistance; and more than
half worked on
HIV prevention with the orphans.
Churches and mosques also set up programmes to
visit orphans in their homes, established
orphanages and
day-care centres,
and provided
medical care, and counselling and psychological
support. |
