Ireland | Thursday
UP to one third of children in southern and east Africa countries could be orphaned by HIV/Aids by 2010, the head of a South African charity told a conference in Ireland on Wednesday.
Orphanhood is the most critical issue affecting children in southern Africa and will remain so for some time, according to Sibongile Mthembu-Mkhabela, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
“By 2010, between 20% and 35% of all children under 15 in eleven countries of Eastern and Southern Africa will be missing their mother, father or both of their parents.
“Children without parental protection lose opportunities for school, health care, growth, development, nutrition, shelter, and even their rights to a decent and humane existence itself.”
Mthembu-Mkhabela said traditional methods of dealing with parent-less children through extended families were no longer working because 11 percent of all children in South Africa were orphans.
He told the International Forum for Child Welfare (IFCW) World Forum at the University of Limerick, in south-west Ireland, that orphanages were suffering from lack of food, educational opportunities and stigmatisation.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 37-million people globally are infected with HIV/Aids.
South Africa currently has 4,7-million people infected with HIV/Aids.
Mthembu-Mkhabela said this meant that 13% of the people infected in the world live in South Africa. There are 1,2-million orphaned children as a result of HIV/Aids.
These figures are expected to double in five years time.
The fund was set up by Nelson Mandela in 1994 to respond to the needs of children in Africa.
The IFCW is an international non-governmental organisation dedicated to fostering co-operation and information exchange in the field of child welfare.
It was established in 1989 to advance the well-being of children globally, and holds consultative status with the United Nations. – AFP