More than 11-million children in sub-Saharan Africa have now lost one or both parents to Aids, and the fast-rising death toll suggests that within seven years the number will have climbed to 20-million, says Unicef, the United Nations children’s organisation.
This is only the start of a major crisis, Unicef warns in a report published on Thursday. Worse is to come in countries most badly hit by the pandemic, such as Swaziland and Botswana, where nearly 40% of adults have HIV.
There and in Lesotho and Zimbabwe, Unicef predicts that one in five children will be an orphan by 2010, with 80% of them having lost one or both parents to Aids.
Without parental protection and support, orphans are at risk of malnutrition and exploitation, as well as losing out on education. Many face discrimination from those who think the orphans may have been infected with HIV. About 90% of orphans are cared for — often with great difficulty — by their extended families. The number of children living on the streets with no adult to protect them is rising in many cities.
If one parent dies, a child’s suffering is often worsened because the household income drops and the child may be taken out of school to look after the surviving parent, or to try to earn money.
”Those of us who work to help children feel outraged by this level of suffering among so many African children,” says Unicef United Kingdom’s executive director, David Bull.
Many of the most severely affected countries have no policies and little money to help the orphans, the report says. ”Their reluctance also often reflects a lingering unease about HIV/Aids itself,” it adds. ”Many policymakers hesitate to take action against a disease so closely associated with private sexual behaviour.” — Â