africa12

AIDS orphans - the facts

By 2003 15 million children under 18 had been orphaned by HIV/AIDS worldwide.2 About
12 million of these live in sub-Saharan Africa, and it is expected that this number will have
risen to more than 18 million by 2010.3 Most of the AIDS orphans who live outside of Africa
live in Asia, where the total number of orphans - orphaned for all reasons - exceeds 87
million. There is however insufficient information in Asia to provide figures for the number of
AIDS orphans in individual countries.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of orphans in some countries exceeds half a million,
and, in some countries, children who have been orphaned by AIDS comprise half or more
of all orphans nationally.4
Total number of orphans due to AIDS, 2003
Nigeria    1,800,000
South Africa    1,100,000
Tanzania    980,000
Zimbabwe    980,000
Uganda    940,000
DR Congo    770,000
Ethiopia    720,000
Zambia    630,000
Orphans due to AIDS as a percentage of all orphans, 2003

Zimbabwe    78%
Botswana    77%
Swaziland    63%
Zambia    60%
Lesotho    56%
Malawi    48%
Namibia    48%
Uganda    48%

AIDS is responsible for leaving vast numbers of children across Africa without one or both
parents. The first table shows the countries with the largest numbers of AIDS orphans.
In some countries, a larger proportion of orphans have lost their parents to AIDS than to
any other cause of death - meaning that, were it not for the AIDS epidemic, these children
would not have been orphaned. The second table shows the countries in which the
children who lost their parents to AIDS make up the highest proportion of the total national
number of orphans.5
The rest of this page concentrates on AIDS orphans in Africa, although the issues
described here are present to some extent in many countries around the world.
Variations within Countries
Different areas in a country will not necessarily have the same concentrations of orphans.
Particular areas may have higher or lower percentages of orphans, largely depending on
the local prevalence rates. There can also be substantial differences between rural and
urban areas.6
The Age of Orphans
The age of orphans is fairly consistent across countries. Surveys suggest that overall
about 15% of orphans are 0-4 years old, 35% are 5-9 years old, and 50% are 10-14 years
old.7
An Increasing Problem
The scale of the AIDS orphan crisis is somewhat masked by the time lag between when
parents become infected and when they die. If as expected, the number of adults dying of
AIDS rises over the next decade, an increasing number of orphans will grow up without
parental care and love.
"the increased spiral of adult deaths in so many countries means that the number of
children orphaned each day is expanding exponentially. Africa is staggering under the
load." Stephen Lewis8

Affecting Family Structures

In African countries that have already had long, severe epidemics, AIDS is generating
orphans so quickly that family structures can no longer cope. Traditional safety nets are
unravelling as more young adults die of AIDS related illnesses. Families and communities
can barely fend for themselves, let alone take care of the orphans. Typically, half of all
people with HIV become infected before they are aged 25, developing AIDS and dying by
the time they are aged 35, leaving behind a generation of children to be raised by their
grandparents, other adult relatives or left on their own in child-headed households.
"Almost throughout sub-Saharan Africa, there have been traditional systems in place to
take care of children who lose their parents for various reasons. But the onslaught of HIV
slowly but surely erodes this good traditional practise by simply overloading its caring
capacity by the sheer number of orphaned children needing support and care. HIV also
undermines the caring capacity of families and communities by deepening poverty due to
loss of labour and the high cost of medical treatment andfunerals."9
The vulnerability of AIDS orphans starts well before the death of a parent. Children living
with caregivers who have HIV/AIDS will often experience many negative changes in their
lives and can start to suffer neglect, including emotional neglect, long before the death of
the parent or caregiver.
The economic impact of HIV/AIDS illness and death has serious consequences for an
orphan's access to basic necessities such as shelter, food, clothing, health and education.
Orphans run greater risks of being malnourished than children who have parents to look
after them.
In addition there is the emotional suffering of the children which usually begins with their
parents' distress and progressive illness. Eventually, the children suffer the death of their
parent(s) and the emotional trauma that results. They then may have to adjust to a new
situation, with little or no support, and they may suffer exploitation and abuse.1011
Since HIV can spread sexually between father and mother, once AIDS has claimed the
mother or father, children are far more likely to lose the remaining parent. Children often
then find themselves taking the role of mother or father or both - doing the housework,
looking after siblings and caring for ill or dying parent(s).12
Children grieving for dying or dead parents are often stigmatised by society through
association with HIV/AIDS. The distress and social isolation experienced by these children,
both before and after the death of their parent(s), is strongly exacerbated by the shame,
fear, and rejection that often surrounds people affected by HIV/AIDS. Because of this
stigma and often-irrational fear surrounding AIDS, children may be denied access to
schooling and health care. And once a parent dies, children may also be denied their
inheritance and property. Often children who have lost their parents to AIDS are assumed
to be infected with HIV themselves. This further stigmatises the children, reduces their
opportunities in the future, and they may also not receive the health care they need, and
sometimes this is because it is assumed they are infected with HIV and their illnesses are
untreatable.