The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) is embarking on an ambitious programme to improve the care, health, education and nutrition of vulnerable children in Zimbabwe, where one child dies of HIV/Aids and another is orphaned every 20 minutes.
Unicef said it had received a British donation of £22-million ($38,4-million) to help children facing some of the worst hardships anywhere in the world, given the extent of the economic crisis.
The British funding over the next four years will also go toward increasing school enrollments for affected children and family and community support programmes as part of Zimbabwe’s National Plan of Action, which enjoys government backing.
”Almost one in three children in Zimbabwe, 1,6-million, are now orphaned, having lost at least one parent, and this number is growing,” Unicef executive director Ann Veneman said in the statement.
”HIV and Aids have dramatically increased children’s vulnerability in recent years.”
Unicef said a child is orphaned and one dies of HIV/Aids every 20 minutes; three infants are infected with the virus every hour, mainly from their mothers; and one in eight children now die before the age of five, compared to one in 13 children 15 years ago.
At least 3 000 people die every week in Zimbabwe from HIV/Aids related causes.
The HIV/Aids epidemic has lowered average life expectancy to below 40, from 69 after independence in 1980.
Unicef said, however, despite the country’s economic collapse Zimbabweans still continued to lead by example in their care for vulnerable children. More than 90% of orphans were absorbed into extended families, sometimes even distant relatives.
Two in five households in the poorest rural areas took in orphans and the vulnerable, adding to their burden of economic hardship.
Less than half of these households received any form of aid or support in the past year, Unicef said.
In November, UNAids reported a decline in Zimbabwe in infection from 26% to 21% of the population.
But it acknowledged that collecting accurate data on the rate of infection in the 12,5-million traditionally polygamous population was hindered by poor responses in research surveys and a common stigma associated with HIV/Aids infection in Africa.
With spiraling inflation, up to 913% last month, collapsing health services and acute shortages of food, gasoline and medicines in Zimbabwe, more HIV/Aids-related illnesses are being nursed at home and many burials in rural areas go unrecorded. ‒ Sapa-AP