REAL LIFE
From Issue #14
Orphans in Africa
The Innocent Victims of AIDS
by James Chung
In 1992, 15 million people were infected with
the HIV virus and 980,000 children became
orphans after the disease stole their parents.
Today, more than 42 million people are living with
HIV/AIDS worldwide, with over 13 million children
globally victimized by the disease, most of
whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Recent reports estimate there could be 40 million
to 100 million orphans by 2010. “It destroys
the poorest countries in the world, and they don’t
have the budgets for the kind of health care they
need,” says UNICEF Canada’s Beth Berton-Hunter
about the HIV virus. Initially, local African governments
didn’t help the situation by denying its
existence, and while they now admit it is a “problem,”
basic medical care and assistance are still
out of reach of ordinary citizens.
Treatments widely available in North America
can prolong the lives of HIV/AIDS patients and help
prevent the disease from passing on, but high costs
of the treatments often mean sufferers in poorer
countries cannot afford the drugs. HIV “cocktails,”
a mixture of 15 to 20 different drugs tailored to
each patient, can cost up to $15,000 — a lifetime’s
worth of savings to some.
Fortunately, research and time have brought
results. Azidothymidine (AZT), an earlier generation
drug that helped prevent mothers from infecting
their children during birth, was expensive at
$100 per treatment and still wasn’t quite doing the
job. Today, there are cheaper and more effective
drugs like Nevirapine, which can cost as little as
$4 per treatment.
Although progress is being made to educate the
region, many remain ignorant about the disease.
Thirty per cent of young women believe that a
healthy-looking male couldn’t possibly be infected
with HIV, while some infected men believe having
sex with a virgin can cure them. And so, the best
investment of money may not be in treating the disease,
but in preventing it. Education campaigns
have proven to be successful in stopping the spread
of the virus. In the early ’90s, when 15% of the
population of Uganda was infected with the disease,
the government ran an extensive education
and condom distribution campaign. In 2003, only
6% of the population is infected.
Education is effective,
and seems to be the latest solution that may
just bring a region back from a devastating crisis
that is destroying lives, families and futures.
While a woman sweeps
and another child stands
nearby, (left-right)
brothers Richard, 10,
and Daniel, 12, wash
clothes outside the
house where they live in
Zambia with a foster
family since being
orphaned by AIDS.
Cecilia holds her sleeping
granddaughter. Florine, 6, is
the youngest of six
grandchildren whom Cecilia
cares for, following the deaths
of both of her daughters from
AIDS. Cecilia ekes out a living
selling dried fish.
Children sit together in the
doorway of the small, one-room
wooden shelter they
call home, in Zimbabwe. The
household is headed by
Eustice (seated, second
from left), 19, who cares for
herself, her two siblings
(one is not present), and her
older sister’s three children.
Eustice’s parents and her
older sister died of AIDS.
A girl in a kindergarten
class at the ‘Shining
Star’ drop-in centre for
orphaned children in
Botswana, learns to
count using numbered
tablets. Most of the children
at the centre have
been orphaned by AIDS.
Her toddler sister on her lap, Christine
Birungi, 12, does her
homework outside
their house in
Kitintale, Uganda.
Christine and her five
siblings lost both
parents to AIDS. The
eldest girl in the
family is 19 years old
and has a two-and-a-half-
month-old baby.
For more information on HIV/AIDS and what you
can do, visit:
UNICEF Canada’s new web site: giveitup4kids.ca
The Children Affected by AIDS Foundation: www.caaf4kids.org
AIDS.org: www.aids.org
All photos supplied by UNICEF/Giacomo Pirozzi
