Stories of Women and Children

Updated March 17, 2005

On busy truck routes throughout Africa, many girls between the ages of eight and eighteen are selling their bodies to feed themselves, and often, their younger siblings. Many indigenous organizations have been formed to help these girls. They teach them skills like tailoring, catering and hairdressing. One young girl, Irene, 18, spent four years in the sex business when she lost her parents in 1999. When she was rescued, she was taught catering and now works as a waitress in a large hotel in Kaduna. She also volunteers to help identify and rescue other child prostitutes. This is one example out of many how indigenous organizations are being formed to fight against the problems AIDS is producing in Africa.

In South Africa, primary education has become free since the year 2000. Many AIDS orphans, manh of whom are also heads of households, are returning to school. One school, in Katlehong in Lesotho, is teeming with AIDS orphans. One of the orphans, Mary, lost her father to AIDS when she was much younger, and her motherfour years later. She was a bright and clever girl, but since she's become an orphan, whe's so sad her grades have dropped dramatically. She lives with an older brother, but must clean houses to support herself, so she's generally late for school. The teachers at the school are full of ideas on how to help the children through plays and games, planting a garden to help with their nutrition needs, educating the community.

The Post in Lusaka, notes (Dec. 14, 2004) "...It is encouraging the World Bank is highlighting the sad plight of our children. Aub ironically, we feel there cannot be a better time for the World Bank to start admitting the impact of their policies on our nations. Our populations have been condemned to abject poverty and desperation as a result of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies. Isn't it also true that the World Bank has acknowledged that poverty exaverbates the HIV/AIDS pandemic? It is these same policies that have seen a collapse of any social safety nets for the vulnerable people. OIt is these same policies including the free-market programmes that have renderedour people jobless with virtually no means to feed themselves and their families.

"Just look at how many of our children have been thrown onto the streets. Look at the increasing nubers of children rummaging in the garbage heaps for food or other valuables to sell to enable them eat something. Is this really the life our valuable resource should be leading?

"...Ir is very clear that these inhumane policies have exacerbated the AIDS and indeed the orphan problem. We urgently need to rethink our policies and save our endangered resource. [children] Beside saving our children, we need to lay a solid foundation for them to meet the future."

Mnimi, a poor village in KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa, is largely cut off from health services because of its distance from a major city. Because their sick and poor are so isolated, their only hope for medical care os from volunteer women trained as home-care counsellors. The organization is a consortium of 25 volunteer women. The group is run by a traditional healer and former teacher. In Mnimi (pOP. 40,000) c;pse tp 70% of people are HIV+. The 25 volunteers visit an average of 200 homes a day to care for their patients. Transport is an insurmountable problem; those with full-blown AIDS can't get to the centers to receive free ARV's. The volunteers are still waiting to receive training in administering the ARV's from the South African government. Not a single one of the patients visited each day is on ARV's.

Isaiah lost his father in 1989. Eleven years later, his mother died. Unable to afford school fees, he dropped out. A relative of his, Elvis Basude, decided to pay his school fees, and he went back to school, but in 2000, his relative became seriously ill with AIDS and bedridden. His wife left him, and Isaiah determined to care for Basude. On a typical day, Isaiah rises at 5, does general cleaning around the house, cleans utensils, prepares warm water for Basude to wash, and makes breakfast. Then he walks to school. By 5, he is back home, fetches water from the well, and prepares supper. Then he does his homework before going to bed. The two live in a small town in a house surrounded by a wall. Isaiah is sixteen years old. Going into the house, the living room is neat, and Basude rests in a red sofa bed wathcing a movie on television. He is a hournalist, and writes for The New Vision. How does he manage to do this, when he is confined to one room? He answere that Isaiah is the answer. "I still write for The New Vision.I listen to the radio , get story ideas. Then I send this boy to interview my sources. It's from this that I pay my rent and his fees. I supplement this with financial help from my other son, Douglas, who is a journalist with the Monitor.Isaiah is deeply in debt for his school fees, but his headmaster knows his situation and has let him run up a considerable debt at school. Isaiah never has time to play with friends. At school he is doing very well, but sometimes he gets very quiet and depressed. A friend at school says, Some times he goes into solitude and feels like he wants to be alone. He just does it suddenly."

At the end of 2002, a program was designed to help street children in Kampala. The Kampala Music School assembled a group of orphans and street boys between the ages of 11 and 20 who lived by picpocketing. They taught them to read and write, and also to play brass instruments. Twelve members of the group were selected to do international music examinations under the Royal Schools of Music in London. The boys passed the exams several of them with distinction. The group gave a concert with a piano accompianist and played pieces by Purcell, Peter Warlock and Brahms, among others. One of the teachers noted, "The instruments are not very good but the boys have managed to produce good music." A fundraiser was held to buy the goys good instruments. Now boys who used to terrorize people have attained skills which should help give them a good future.

`Jane was an orphan living with her uncle. Her sister returned to her village one day and tempted her to come to Kampala with her. She owned a bar, and Jane helped with the work there. The bar was a meeting place for young girls who hooked up with clients for commercial sex. Several of the more experienced sex workers convinced Jane that she should work with them, and as her sister was not giving her any money, Jane decided to join them. Soon she was having sex with many different men. That lasted for about a year and a half, when she found herself pregnant. At that time, there was a massive campaign going on in Kampala to educate people about AIDS, and one night, Jane attended a workshop. When it ended, she approached a social worker with AMREF, a group that tries to improve health as a way to reduce poverty. Jane decided to leave her work as a prostitute, and found many people in AMREF who helped her. When prostitutes decide to abandon their work, they are given counseling, treated free of charge for STD's, and encouraged to take a voluntary HIV test. They also receive vocational training and adult literacy classes. Jane finally took her baby back to her home village. She is presently studying tailoring and will graduate with a certificate next March.

In a poor rural district in Uganda, a 52-year-old widow, with two acres of land and a dilapidated mud and wattle house cares for the offspring of her five children who have died of AIDS, six orphans in all. Three miles away, another widow, age 50, cares for the ten orphans of her dead sister. In the district, AIDS has swept through the countryside like a strong bush fire. A community organization, Community Action to Support the Survival of Orphans (CASSO) has been formed iin the district. Many women in the area have lost their children, and have orphans to care for. Many of the orphans are dejected and withdrawn, due to the lack of basic needs, and lack of parental care. CASSO aims to inculcate a sense of self-confidence in orphans, and gives them individual counseling amd extra-curricular activities such as soccer, singing, role-playing, story telling and debates. Five girls and boys constitute a peer group and choose a leader, who is responsible to be sure all members of his group participate in the activities. Casso also helps the widows who care for children; although everyone is very poor, they help out as they can with vegetables from their own gardens. Dr. Kintu, one of the founders, says the group would like to build neighborhood centers where vocational training would help orphans get skills to generate income.

Thirteen-year-old Cecilia (not her real name), rises at dawn each day do draw water to bathe her three step-siblings. She lights the fire and makes their breakfast, then sends them to school while she remains at home alone. There she works in the fields and washes clothes. She is an AIDS orphan, one of some 800,000 Zambian children who have lost their parents to AIDS. One in three households in Zambia supports at least one AIDS orphan, and 90% of these households live in poverty. Orphans are often stigmatized and blamed by relatives and guardians for several reasons: for the assumed promiscuity of their parents, for using up the little money there is, for being themselves potentially infected. Orphans are often abused verbally, physically, sexually. For many, living rough on the streets may be safer. This stigma impedes children's - particularly girl's- access to education. When money is limited, orphans are withdrawn from school. Some households may take in orphans in exchange for household work, caring for other sick relatives, or agricultural labor. An NGO investigated the experience of 80 Zambian children, 45 of them AIDS orphans, by using sstories, drawing, drama, plays, and interviews. Their research confirmed that adults and children aike blame orphaned children, and this stigma seriously affects their well-being. Orphans are given the heaviest workload. Some don't eat with the family, existing on leftovers. Others do chores at mealtime and remain hungry. Some orphaned girls are married off the help other struggling families. Where a girl is the eldest and must take care of younger siblings, she may be drawn into selling sex for food. Orphans not attending school are especially deprived, though they usually have a home, they remain alone and neglected all day. This lack of adult contact has a huge impact on children's self-esteem. The loss of contact with people seemed to render some of the children "invisible." During a "name game," children were asked to get up and introduce themselves. For some AIDS orphans, this request seemed insurmountable, as if no one had ever asked them that question before. Fortunately, it was also revealed that many AIDS orphans are very resilient, and learn to remove themselves from abusive situations, and seeking help when they can. They also have a remarkable solidarity with one another. Although Zambia established free primary education in 2002, some schools still charge for uniforms and other fees. One AIDS orphan, when asked what could be done about abuse of orphans, replied simply, "Advise people not to mistreat them. They didn't apply to become orphans."

In July of 2004, a press service from Hohannesburg, South Africa, printed an article about the female condom. It is being provided to 200 selected family planning centers, and it is gaining in popularity among women in the country who are concerned about getting HIV. It is a lubricated sheath about 17 centimeters long with a ring on both ends. It can be inserted into the vagina up to eight hours before sex, and doesn't have to be removed immediately after. It can be washed, dried, lubricated, disinfected, and used over and over. One woman from Capetown asked for the condom because she was afraid of rape when she left her compound. At least with the condom, she'd be safe from AIDS.

Microbicides are also being tested in laboratories in South Africa. They are applied before sex and can kill, neutralize or block HIV infections and other sexually transmitted infections. The final trials will involve thousands of HIV-negative women. To protect them from possible infection during the tests, condoms will also be used. This phase is expected to take three and one-half years, and scientists hope the microbicides till be ready for use be 2008.

< ALIGN="LEFT">Margaret, a woman dying of AIDS was 50 years old, and she was carried to her mother's home in a nearby village to die. She lay writhing in pain from an attack of Herpes Zoster which had raised watery blisters all over her waist. She tried to relieve the pain by fanning herself with her clothing, but it did no good. Her mother was at a loss as to what to do. She was fortunate in one way: she lived near Kampala in Uganda, and she was soon visited by three women, facilitators from Home Based Care, HBC). She told the two women her daughter was in great pain from the blisters, and she seemed unable to eat anything; she threw up whatever she'd been given. The women had brought a hard cover book with them, and looked up the herbal medicines. They found a local herb, akagagi, and recommemded the mother squeeze the juice from it to alleviate the pain from the blisters. They also recommended the woman buy Samona Jelly to squeeze on after she'd applied the herb, and Samona Soap, to wash her hands after administering the jelly. They gave her a pair of rubber gloves to use while administering the medicine. Margaret was taking many medicines, and they women suggested her mother give her a small amount of banana to eat before giving her pills. Even if she threw up, they advised, some of the good would remain in her stomach.

HBC is a concept wmbraced by World Vision as a response to the AIDS crisis. One HIV+ man, Angelo, the father of two children, (one of them HIV+) is visited by a team of three women twice a month. His wife died of AIDS in 1998. He lives with his mother, who is the caregiver for the little family. She says, "When HBC facilitators come, we realize that HIV/AIDS is a collective responsibility." The team which visited Margaret and her mother have identified 70 people living with HIV/AIDS in the small parish they serve, from the age of three to 72. Since their work is becoming known in the parish, more and more people are coming forward. HBC is not easy, it is done voluntarily, and it is stressful because they deal with chronically ill patients. "Our limitation is a lack of supplies. The kits that World Vision gave us have basic First Aid items. On some cases, we go to people who are very poor and one would need other items beyond the kit, like food supplies including sugar, rice, milk. We wish other organizations would join hands with World Vision to boost the care initiative." The volunteers will be supplied with bicyckes ti hekp them travel from place to place.

In many areas of sub-Saharan Africa, cemetaries are running short of space, and bodies are being piled up in makeshift morgues. The problem is not only lack of cemetary space, but families of the deceased are not able to afford fees for burial. Many families are turning to cremation, but this is not a traditionally accepted practice.

Pascoul Mocumbi, former Prime Minister of Mozambique, states, "As a man, I know men's behavior must change, that we must raise boys differently, to have any hoope of eradicating HIV and preventing the emergence of another such scourge...To change fundamentally how boys and girls learn to relate to each other and how men treat girls and women is slow, painstaking work. But surely our children's lives are worth the effort." According to a recen report by the UN Sec.Gen.'s Task Force on Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa, women and girls translate to two thirds of young people living with the virus or AIDS related illness in Southern African countries. The report states the prevailing norms in Southern Africa called for girls to be passive and ignorant about sex, while men were taught to dictate the terms of sexual relationships. The 'ABC' formula for fighting AIDS is a first step, but a further aim must be to build assertiveness and self-esteem in young women. They also added abstinence itself is meaningless where boys are encouraged to be sexually agressive and girls are kept ignorant about their own sexuality. They added that being faithful only worked if both parties played by the same rules, yet prevailing norms encourage men to have multiple partners while condemning women if they did the same. Women and girls need more than the slogans of ABC to protect themselves from HIV. First, they need a good education so they can make informed decisions. Most young Africans have no idea of how their reproductive systems work, and most parents consider discussing sex with their children to be un-African. It was noted that men must play a major part in fighting the pandemic, since currently, they hold most positions of real power, and have a vital role to play in ending the domination they currently hold over women.

The beginning of October, 2004,government officials, civil society and media met in Switzerland to discuss how men could help reduce the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS among women.Joseph Amuzu, Chiief Program Officer, said, "There is an understanding that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is driven by men. Men make the key decisions in heterosexual relationships. Generally, they determine how and when sex takes place and sometimes they use violence against women to achieve their sexual desires. In many cultures men are expected to marry younger women, have extra-marital relationships and very often resist the use of condoms. As a result, men have a high risk of contracting and spreading HIV from multiple partnering and other risky behavior." UNAUDS estimates that 50 to 60 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS are now women. Women are the main caregivers when family or community members fall sick. They support AIDS orphans and provide strength for the most vulnerable by their efforts to raise awareness and change behavior. Mr. Amuzu concluded, "Women bear the brunt of HIV/AIDS but do not have adequate resources to support themselves and the family. They struggle with minimal suport from men. These challenges therefore require that AIDS campaigns target men."

Women are organizing to work for their rights in most countries in the region. They are particularly strong in countries like South Africa, where iin the past they worked to end apartheid. Ms. Sibongile Msimela, the UNAIDS gender advisor for the East and Southern Africa, says that as welcome as the current forus on women is, much of the debate seems to imply that "African women are doing nothing. It's important to keep in mind that African women themselves are very actively pushing for change. The notion that people will come from outside to save Afrian women is wrong. The battle for women's rights has been fought by African women for a long time now...The history of organizing has really helped women keep their communities together through some of the darkest times. It's not all doom and gloom."

A reporter from South Africa was traveling in Malawi when he came upon a small rural village. There were several dozen souls in the village; the oldest was a frail woman of 64, the next oldest was a boy of 14.

*****

In a small village in Uganda, at the end of a dusty mud path, is the village of Kayunga-Kyamagwa. Death there is no longer news, no one, not even toddlers and teenagers are afraid of death. It is too common. AIDS strikes one home after another; some clans have completely vanished. Elizabeth Mubaali, a 71 year old grandmother, has lost three sons to AIDS Each son left from six to nine children, and twenty-five grandchildren are ow living with Elizabeth. She said several of them are also sick, with sicknesses she does not understand. She supports the grandchildren by making mats out of soda and beer straws and selling them in the village. She is an overworked, strained, old woman under the crushing weight of poverty, orphans, and poor health. But the village knows her, and helps her. She belongs to an association for old people in the village, and through the association, she received a grant three years ago and obtained pigs to raise, but recently, her piggery was hit by swine fever.

In the same village is another grandmother with 15 orphans to raise. She lost all three sons to AIDS. Her house is on the verge of collapse. Thanks to the Universal Primary Education Program in Uganda, seven of the orphans are attending primary school, but for those who have finished primary school, there is no money for secondary school fees. By 2010, there will be 20 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa.

*****

In Malawi, a young woman, barely past childhood herself, sits on a mat next to her very sick husband and nurses her baby. The child is a year old, but looks no bigger than 6 months. Lucy explains her baby has always been sickly since birth and has never eaten well. Close by is a two year old girl. She also does not look well, her tummy is swollen, her hair is sparse and dusty. Her eyes are dull, and she merely sits watching the room. Lucy has one more child, a little boy of four. He has no energy, because he has just had malaria. This family is one who is assisted by members of Home Based Care (HBC).

Lucy is not more than twenty one and has already had three children and one miscarriage. Soon after she became a 'namwali' (began her monthly period), her older sister died, and she was given to her sister's husband to help him care for three orphaned children. Lucy explains, "My sister helped my look after me and her husband paid for my school. He was also very kind to my sister and when I was told I must marry him in order to help him look after the children, I could not refuse." Lucy was asked how long her husband had been sick, and she replied he had started being sick before her sister died. "He was away in South Africa for about two years and he had to come back home because he was not well enough to continue working there. He got better but stared becoming ill again and now he is having difficulty even walking without assistance."

The situation Lucy finds herself in is not unique. It is still carried out in many places in Malawi. The practice doesn't take place only if the sister dies. It a man has been very good to the sister, and they wish to thank him, they may 'give' him the younger sister to take as a wife. In the past, this practice might have ensured that a young girl was well cared and provided for, but in present day circumstances, it has become one way young girls have become infected with HIV. The young girls themselves have little say in the matter and are considered good and obedient when they comply.

The HBC notes that instructors who teach young girls about becoming a woman, the traditional leaders and older family members should be informed of the dangers of early marriages in order to protect young girls from being infected. When they are told of the dangers, they devise different rituals to replace those which could spread HIV.

*****

At eight years of age, Emmanuel Kalunga is the head of his family. His mother, Lydia, is dying of the disease, which has already killed his father and his younger brother. Lydia has just a few weeks to live, and her disabled mother is too frail to help. The family is desperately poor, and often go for days without food.

Mrs. Kalunga says that Emmanuel's job is to care for the family. She says, "He is not in school. He has no clothes, no shoes, no blanket. I do not know what Emmanuel will be in the future if I die."

In northern Zambia, children grow up too fast. One in four is an AIDS orphan. School is a luxury few can afford. Most grow up without education, will remain destitute throughout their lives, be more vulnerable to AIDS.

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Mabel and her twin sisters, Tangu and Nyuma, have turned to prostitution. Mabel says she knows the risk, but there is nothing else to do, because they must eat.

There are some income generating programs being set up, such as one which employs orphans to make greeting cards for export. But it is not nearly enough. Without help on a global scale, an escalation in the numbers of orphans will mean catastrope for Zambia. Few Zambian parents live past the age of 30.

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Paulina, age 70, shows the graves of her children. There were seven daughters and sons; all had died of AIDS. She is presently struggling to raise her grandchildren. When the interviewer met the children, she asked them how they played. They made a rope of banana leaves and skipped ropoe. They had no other toys. Paulina raises her grandchildren with love, but little else, not toys or books or even enough food. School is out of the question.

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Nine year old Timothy Kabuka knows his mother is dying of AIDS. His father has already died. But Timothy has hope. In 2003, he was invited to be a part of the African Children's Choir, made up of AIDS orphans, who toured the United States to raise awareness of the problems and to raise money. This money will provide for the children's education all the way through college. The Christian nonprofit operates choirs in Uganda and six other African nations, and touches 6,000 children.

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One AIDS researcher recently found a remote village in Malawi. There were 68 inhabitants. The oldest was an old woman, the next down in age was a 14 year old. All the other 66 were younger than 14.

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After Sekel's mother died of AIDS when she was 16, she had to drop out of school to care for her 11 year old brother. She works in the farm fields and earns 62 pence a day.

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Eleven year old Fortunate, seven year old Bright and three year old Innocence live in the most prosperous house in their village. Their father started the building, and when he died, their mother used insurance money to finish it. But then she too was an AIDS victim, and the children were orphaned.

Their grandmother moved in to look after them, but she is out working her fields. The three girls sleep together in one bed. They wear tattered clothes and complain about being hungry. Fortunate goes to school in the mornings; her favorite subject is math. But her relatives want her to work in their fields.

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There are, of course, AIDS orphans who die before the age of five. These are children born of HIV+ mothers. In South Africa, each year 200,000 pregnant women risk giving birth to a child who has only a 25% chance of living beyone the age of two.

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Cloud and Joseph Tinoti are 11 and 14; the oldest one in their household is their 15 year old brother, Samuel. Their father is unemployed and is struggling to care for the family of his second wife. Once a month, volunteers bring the children some food. The brothers live in a one room shack, which is strewn with dirth clothes, unwashed dishes, broken chairs. On the table, a mass of ants feasts on pumpkin seeds and dried leaves.

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A Ugandan girl named Kevina has lost both parents to AIDS. She is 14, but must care for four younger brothers and three younger sisters plus her 84 year old blind grandfather. They have no money, food, health care or transportation. Their roof leaks and other villagers sometimes steal their firewood.

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By 2010, there will be 40 million AIDS orphans in Africa. Most of them will have grown up without a real social structure. Concern is growing worldwide about the lawlessness and chaos which will have the potential to destabilize the region and wht world.

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The story of Olivia, a Ugandan AIDS orphan, was told vividly by Sophia Mukasa Monic, before the Global Health Council, in Washington, DC, December 1, 2003.

At nine years of age, Olivia and her mother were sent from their home by the man she had called dad. The reason: her mom was sick, and Olivia discovered for the first time the man was really her step-dad. They moved in with her mother's best friend, a one-bedroom house with two women and three children, but discovered they were considered a liability, so they found their own one bedroom apartment, more like a shack.

In 1990, when Olivia was ten, they joined a support group called TASO ( The AIDS Support Organization.) There they found a new family. As her mother became progressively sicker, Olivia became her mother's nurse.

Sophia Monic asks "I wonder how many of you know what this entails, in the last stages of AIDS the person cannot control the body, including the bowels. This means changing the soiled bedding and cleaning the person on a regular basis. Can you imagine the trauma a child of 9/10/11/12 whatever age is subjected to seeing her mother's or father's private parts, this happens to both boys and girls. ...Every center in TASO records an average of 20 kids below 15 who accompany their parents to TASO canters, and the logical inference is that they are also the primary caare givers.

The mother died when Olivia was 12, in 1992. Before she died, the mother confided her concerns to TASO, as men had already started to bother Olivia. At that time, there were no big donors to TASO; only the British Ambassador's wife and two African-American women were giving us donations that we used for the needs of 36 children.

Olivia was one of the lucky ones, she was able to continue her education and her school vacations were rotated among the TASO families. She was one of the children who founded the AIDS Challenge Youth Club, an organization to raise awareness about AIDS among young people and to care for people with AIDS.

Olivia volunteered wih TASO during her high school vacation in 1998. She told her story to visitors from the US Congress and the National AIDS Policy Office. When the congress women returned to the US, they privately donated a million dollars to TASO for programs to help AIDS orphans. Olivia and five others were supported to go to university, where she was an outstanding student. TASO now looks after 2000 AIDS orphans, out of the estimated 200,000 children of registered clients.

In July, 1999, Olivia travelled to the US to describe the realities of being an AIDS orphan to Congress and the Cabinet. It was a dream come true for her; the first time on an airplane, and to the White House!! Olivia's story raised an additional $100M.

During the visit to the US, Olivia became weak, and she returned immediately to Uganda. She was taken at once to the hospital. It was discovered she was HIV+, and the doctor advised us to start her on ARV's. Medication then cost $1000 a month, but we figured we could manage the expense.

The problem was Olivia; although she suspected she might have HIV, she was in denial, but we gave her counselling and she took the test.

When I was handed the results, Olivia took one look at my face and fainted. She began taking ARV's, but soon afterwards, was taken ill with various opportunistic infections that often accompany AIDS; crypto coco meningitis, and finally, TB. She died July of 2000, a very angry and embittered young girl.

What do we learn from Olivia's story? First, support for children affected with HIV/AIDS must be comprehensive, and should start while the parents are still alive. First, we must prevent orphans. We must increase efforts to stop the further spread of HIV. UNAIDS estimates we need to spend $4.8M each year in the low and middle income countries for prevention of mother to child transmission.

We must invest in innovative prevention programs for all youth, to let these children grow up in an environment that will protect them from HIV and also promise them a brighter future than the very bleak present they live in. Today they are vulnerable to HIV infection (through transaction sex especially with older men) as well as being potential recruits for terrorists.

We would like to help these children form a solid identity for themselves. We need to help the parents share their dreams for the future of their children with their children. TASO is trying to do this through basic things like memory books, parent/child meetings, and get together events for children, parents, and counsellors.

We need to institute legal framework to protect vulnerable children. The present framework is mostly protective of the sexual lives of the men. Sexual offenses are crimes against the state, but some punishments are an insult: the court might ask for an amount equivalent to the price of a hen, which is $1.00.

As much as is possible, we must support community efforts to help AIDS ophans. We must support the households which are absorbing AIDS orphans; 95% of Ugandan households have at least one AIDS orphan. We must support child-headed families. Institutions have to be a last resort.

Education for AIDS orphans should be free. They should be kept purposefully busy; this could keep them out of the snares of persons who are out for sex regardless of the risk. We must find employment opportunities, especially for the girls, to keep them from unsafe sex and unwanted pregnancies.

Sophia Monic ends: "In conclusion, supporting children afected with HIV/AIDS is long term, it is not a cheap venture and more, not an impossible venture. It is worth investing in as Olivia has already shown us."

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In South Africa, in December of 2002, four AIDS orphans buried their father in the front yard of their Natal home. Their ages were 17, 15, 13, and 2. Their father died of an AIDS-related illness two weeks after their mother succumbed to AIDS. The children were unable to pay the mortuary fee, so they had to bury him in their yard. Seventeen year old Vusi will now be the head of the household.

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Again in South Africa, fourteen year old Siphephile, a shy Grade 7 girl, graduated from being a full-time nurse to her sickly parents to being a full time parent to her five younger siblings when both her parents succumbed to AIDS.

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In a speech before the United Nations, Steven Lewis, a Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, tells of a village in Zambia where the orphan population was described to him as "out-of-control." He tells of entering a home, where an 84 year old patriarch, entirely blind, and his two wives, 78 and 76 sat with 32 orphaned children for whom they were now responsible. Between them, they had given birth to 9 children; 8 were now dead, and the ninth was clearly dying. Mr Lewis wondered, "What in God's name is the future for these youngsters?"

A 62-year old grandmother, Najjuuko, is caring for two little twin boys, her grandchildren. They sit in dirty T-shirts in the compound, and they are playing with dirty tins, their only toys. They look like ten-month old babies, but they are actually two years old. Her daughter became ill with AIDS, and brought the grandchildren to her so she could 'go look for money.' The daughter is now so ill she cannot work. There is no garden, because Najjuuko had to sell the land. Now she is destitute, and has to depend on handouts to feed the children.

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Nakandi Mayega, also 62, looks after seven grandchildren, three of whom are less than five years old.

Zachariah, 82, and his wife Cotilda, 65, look after two grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Thousands of Zambian families are now held together by teenagers barely old enough to care for themselves. They try to maintain some semblance of the lives they lived before their parents died. Boaz, a Zambian child who has cared for his four younger siblings since their mother died, says frankly that he thinks he'll " grow old quickly if I continue like this." He and the other children were evicted from their home because they could not pay rent, and now they live far out in the bush. He farms his own land and helps others to make money, trying to keep the family together and fed. He says, "They're my brothers and sisters. And no one else will love them if I don't. And they will die if I don't take care of them."

In Zambia alone, nearly 500 people die every single day. The government estimate is that half the population will die of the AIDS pandemic. That will mean that in a country with 10 million people, 1 million could be AIDS orphans.