GODFREY'S CHILDREN

A Project of Hope

Background

AIDS has had devastating impacts among children on the African continent -- especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. UNICEF estimates that Tanzania will have up to one million children orphaned by AIDS by the year 2000. According USAID projections, Tanzania will have 4.2 million orphans who will have lost their parents to AIDS by 2010 if current HIV infection rates do not drastically decrease. This means that every third child in Tanzania will be an orphan.

Extended family systems in the African culture have traditionally provided support for orphans. AIDS, combined with other pressures such as migration, is pushing the extended family system to a breaking point in the worst affected communities.

As a result, many AIDS orphans are looked after by their grandparents. But the grandparents themselves may be in need of health care. The death of a grandparent may create a situation where there is nobody else in the extended family willing or able to care for the children. This gives rise to orphan households headed by older siblings. Increasingly in communities with major AIDS epidemics families are cared for either by the very young or the very old.

Children who lose a parent to AIDS suffer the grief and confusion experienced by any orphan. However, their loss is often worsened by prejudice and social exclusion, including the loss of education, health care, even of the property they are entitled to inherit. The resulting poverty and isolation can create a vicious circle, placing them at greater risk of contracting HIV themselves.

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February, 2002