The United Nations on Saturday pledged $83-million to support a growing population of orphans in the poor Southern African nation of Malawi.
”Malawi will have one million orphans by the year 2010,” said Stephen Lewis in the administrative capital, Lilongwe, at the end of his four-day official visit to Malawi.
Lewis was in Malawi to assess the roll-out of the free anti-retroviral programme in the country, which has been beset by a lack of funding and slow receipt of drugs.
Lewis said the country’s strategic plan on orphans whose parents have died of Aids is ”quite impressive”.
Officially there are 700 000 orphans in the country, where 70 000 adults die of Aids every year.
He said the UN will support the ”continued flow of resources” in order to treat 80 000 people by the end of 2005.
”The flow of resources must continue. It’s very important that there is no break in the supply of drugs so that the target of 80 000 is reachable,” Lewis said.
He said 9 000 Malawians are on Aids treatment, saying this is a ”magnificent achievement and a window of hope”.
Lewis said the target is to get 40 000 on treatment by June next year and 80 000 by December.
He said the UN Children’s Fund is now procuring drugs for Malawi.
Malawi has complained that it is meeting obstacles in getting drugs faster to the country and accessing the funds from the Global Aids Fund facility.
Aids has cut down life expectancy in Malawi to 36. — Sapa-AFP