By 2015 about 20% of Zambia’s children will be orphaned by HIV/Aids, the Department of Foreign Affairs warned on Monday.
Current official estimates indicate that over 1,1-million Zambian children are orphans, mostly as a result of Aids.
About 90 000 have the disease and thousands of others are directly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation due to high poverty levels, a ministry statement said.
Over 71% of Zambia’s six million children live in extreme poverty and deprivation, despite accounting for over half of the country’s 10,2-million people.
Reports further indicate that levels of sexually transmitted infections among the hundreds of street children are also high.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, which runs a programme for street children and conducts mobile health clinics, warned the levels had reached ”alarming proportions”.
The Zambia Civic Education Association (ZCEA) recently described the condition of children in the country as ”critical”, and called on the government to immediately enact a child policy and action plan.
”The government bears the primary responsibility for reaching out to these children. All these live in plain view of government and communities but are invisible and excluded from fundamental services and protection,” said ZCEA executive director Judith Mulenga. — Sapa-dpa