THE SILENT TRAGEDY

45 MILLION ORPHANS BY 2010

In a world of instant news and connectivity, a silent tragedy is taking place. The twin epidemics, HIV and AIDS - are now taking their human toll in a world that has avoided facing or understanding the scale of the impact of HIV/AIDS would have upon children.

The HIV epidemic was a silent emergency and its invisibility gave rise to some false hope that tragedy would be averted. However the AIDS epidemic is now beginning to inflict its death toll and thousands of AIDS victims are dying everyday.

Consequently children are now being orphaned on a scale unrivalled in world history. Reliable sources estimate that by 2010 there will be over 44 million orphans in the sub-Saharan, Asian, Latin America and Caribbean countries alone, 30 million of them orphaned by the AIDS pandemic.

AIDS decimates the second or middle generations - 85% of deaths occur in the 20 - 45 age range. The death of care providers, the breadwinners, the tax payers not only decimates families and communities but also undermines the capacity of the state to respond on an appropriate scale.

As Governments and local communities are increasingly unable to fill the economic void, vast numbers of young children and the older generation are being left to fend for themselves and are pushed into destitution.

An unprecedented health crisis is turning into a mega socio-economic challenge which threatens the stability and security of many countries. The impact of AIDS on children is a multi-dimensional one.

As hundreds of thousands of children are orphaned by AIDS, and receive no adult guidance, education or health services, they will be forced on to the dangerous city streets and will turn to crime to survive.

Sadly, tens of thousands of the children orphaned have no surviving adult relatives so the number of child-headed households is increasing rapidly. Most are children in distress whose primary needs are for physical and emotional care. If their social and intellectual development is not assisted they are at risk of growing into dysfunctional adults, alienated and deprived individuals unable to live peaceably or work productively. The potential for social unrest and instability is significant for if there are a substantial section of populations undereducated, malnourished, and criminalized, it is impossible to predict the social consequences.

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