AIDS Orphans in Africa: What We Can Do

Kelcie Bean
6/16/08
College Prep. Writing
Power of One
Written Speech

I. Intro.: How many people know someone whose parents have both died from the AIDS virus? This is an everyday truth in many African countries today. Over 12 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa have been orphaned by AIDS to date ("AIDS Orphans"). Aids orphans aren’t necessarily infected themselves, but one or both parents have died of the disease. This is common in married couples because HIV is passed often through heterosexual intercourse. Seven million African adults are already HIV-positive, and are at risk of leaving dependent children behind. Half of all people contract HIV before age 25 and die by 35, leaving entire families of children behind.

II. The majority of AIDS orphans live in South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda, where awareness and education about the disease are limited. The health care systems of many African countries only supply between one and ten dollars per person for insurance, not nearly enough to cover an AIDS victim (Sachs). The disease is crippling the economy in much of Africa, as it lessens the supply of able-bodied workers.
On a personal level, the children who lose their parents suffer emotional distress and depression. Many are left alone without support, even neglected by relatives too scarred by the social stigma of AIDS to care for them. In a survey of children both affected and not affected by AIDS in rural Uganda, 12% of AIDS orphans affirmed that they wished they were dead compared to 3% of unaffected children interviewed ("AIDS Orphans"). These problems are only escalated when the children are forced to leave their siblings.
Orphans typically are taken into households where there’s only one care giver with limited income for a large number of children. AIDS orphans sometimes turn to stealing or begging in the streets to support their siblings. They often must assume housework and the responsibility of caring for younger siblings. AIDS orphans miss out on education and are often denied healthcare because people assume they also have HIV/AIDS and don’t want to be responsible for helping them ("AIDS Orphans"). These children are emotionally taxed and miss out on basic life training, so they have harder times supporting themselves in the future.

III. Stories:
Teddy, a girl from Southern Uganda, was orphaned by AIDS at age eleven. She saw both her parents die within the same year. Teddy had to look after her mother while she was sick, as well as cook and watch her younger siblings. Teddy wishes her mother had been able to tell her more about the way the disease is transmitted so she won’t get it. Teddy and her siblings had no food, money, salt or soap and were left to fend for themselves. Some neighbors degraded them, calling them Aids orphans, saying their parents might have infected them, saying they didn’t belong, they didn’t "have a clan." Some neighbors asked Teddy to sell some of their trees, and Teddy did, but the neighbors never gave them the money. Other neighbors come in to their garden regularly and steal their beans.

Jimmy from Uganda saw his father die of AIDS when Jimmy was nineteen. His mother couldn’t care for him and his five siblings. Jimmy signed up for a carpentry course, one of the few offered to AIDS orphans through a program called Plan. Jimmy hopes to build tables and chairs, not coffins for AIDS victims like many other Ugandan carpenters do.

IV. Current Efforts:
There is a school in Kenya called the St. Aloysius Gonzaga High School, serving AIDS orphans. Members of the Christian Life Community (CLC) spent time with infected people in a slum in Nairobi. 88% of all Kenyan children attend no school at all. Kids must do well on a government exam and show proof of a parent dying from AIDS to be accepted to the school.

Meredith Frank, a junior from Missouri, started a porridge fundraiser at her school to raise awareness for AIDS orphans. Students ate porridge, like children in Africa might be lucky to eat, to learn what it’s like to go without plentiful food. Meredith hopes to deliver a petition with 6,000 signatures and $6,000 to President Bush in support of the global AIDS bill.

V. Solutions/ What we can do:
Long-term solutions to the problem have been attempted. Large numbers of orphanages have been built, but it is not sustainable, as the cost of upkeep and rapid growth of affected population make it impractical. The best way to help the orphans is to put them in foster homes, get them adopted (without separation from siblings), or put them in supportive family communities where they can feel secure. They need proper education to prevent their generation from contracting the disease, and to help them find employment and self-worth. Children need basic necessities, too, like food and clothing, not condoms. While teaching abstinence and the use of condoms is necessary, it is not going to directly solve the issue of how to help the already-affected orphans.

If I could, I would continue to build schools to provide at least primary education to all AIDS orphans. I would create support systems in communities, where their elders did not reject the orphans or discriminate against them because their parents had the disease. I would also back up Meredith in sending money to the President to make him see that we need funding for projects! Last, but not least, I would try to get the African governments to spend more on health care, or at least don’t deny it to the orphans because "they might have the disease, too."

VI Here and Now:
Right now, we can educate ourselves and others, using these quotes for empowerment (handed out in class). We can donate money or supplies to one of many charities, as well as find opportunities to volunteer or sponsor a child by going to some of these websites:
www.avert.org/aidsorphans
www.educating-aids-orphans-in-africa.org
www.sos-usa.org
www.worldaidsorphans.org/section/donate

OR we can even adopt a child/children from Africa to make a huge difference in one or many children’s lives!