So far, the AIDS epidemic has left behind 14 million orphans. 79% of the AIDS orphans live in Africa. By 1997, the proportion of children with one or both parents dead had skyrocketed to 7% in many African countries and in some countries reached an astounding 11%.

In African countries that have 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 to take care of the orphans. Typically, half of the people with HIV become infected before they turn 25, acquiring AIDS and dying by the time they turn 35, leaving behind a generation of children to be raised by their grandparents or left their own in child-headed households.

More children have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa than anywhere else. The deep-rooted kinship systems that exist in Africa, extended -family networks of aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents, are an age-old social safe net for such a children that has long proved itself resilient even to major social changes. Capacity and resources are stretched to breaking point, and those providing the necessary care in many cases are already impoverished, often elderly and might themselves have depended financially and physically on the support of the very son or daughter who has died.

Efforts to protect children orphaned by AIDS are nearly as old as the epidemic, and many are beginning to show real progress. Several of these encouraging efforts have taken place in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, 4 of the 10 worst affected countries in terms of HIV prevalence.

In Botswana, UNAIDS have estimated that 69,000 children had lost their parent(s) to AIDS by the end of 2001. The government in Botswana encourages communities to provide care for orphans and to rely on institutional care only as a last resort.

Malawi has been struggling with high levels of HIV infection. Also the incidence of tuberculosis has more than tripled since the late 1980's, largely due to HIV. The AIDS crisis has had a crippling impact on the country's children and UNAIDS estimated that Malawi has 470,000 children orphaned by AIDS as of the end of 2001.

In Zambia, the AIDS epidemic has had a devastating impact on communities in Zambia. The estimated amount of children orphaned because of AIDS is 570,000. Many families already worn out by widespread and extreme poverty are stretched beyond their capacity. Many of the rural population is considered to be living below the poverty line and large numbers of families are forced to rationing food, which in turn affects child development. The crisis is eroding the Government's ability to provide services, whilst at the same time increasing demand for them. Zambia's primary health care system used to be one of the best administered and most decentralised among all African countries, but now, with increasing household poverty, external debt obligations, and demand placed on health services by HIV/AIDS, the system is breaking down.

Information: Avert: AIDS Orphans in Africa. UNAIDS: Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic July 2002. UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS " AIDS Epidemic Update December 2000" and "Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic," June 2000 UNICEF, "Children Orphaned by AIDS, front-line responses from eastern and southern Africa", December