Eight out of 10 children who have lost parents to HIV/Aids live in sub-Saharan Africa, a study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) revealed on Wednesday.
Releasing the report in Johannesburg, Unicef director Carol Bellamy said about half the orphans in the region are between 10 and 14 years old, 35% are aged between five and nine, and about 15 percent are aged four and under.
”If not for HIV/Aids, the number of orphans in the region would be decreasing,” she said at the launch of the report titled Africa’s Orphaned Generations.
”The percentage of sub-Saharan Africa’s orphans whose parents died from the pandemic has grown from 3,5% in 1990 to 32% in 2001.”
The study was conducted jointly by Unicef, the United States Agency for International Development and the UN programme on HIV/Aids, UNAids.
Bellamy said currently there are more than 34-million orphans in the region, with at least 11-million of them orphaned by HIV/Aids.
Even without HIV/Aids, the percentage of children who are orphaned would be significantly higher in the region than in other parts of the world.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 12% of all children are orphans, compared with 6,5% in Asia, and 5% in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Bellamy said in 10 countries in the region under review, more than one in five 14-year-olds are orphans.
HIV/Aids and continuing armed conflicts are multiplying the already severe pressures on sub-Saharan African families and communities caused by the exceptionally high numbers of orphaned children. — Sapa