AIDS Orphans in South Africa

According to a study, three million boys and girls in South Africa from birth to the age of eighteen have been orphaned. Since 2005, the number of orphans has risen 4.9 percent. A startling 1.9 million children lost their fathers,  and 713,000 lost their mothers. Approximately 419,000 children were even left without both parents. The affects on health, either physically or mentally, on children who have been orphaned are extreme. In many cases, the child's physical health is compromised, with a weak immune system and horrible health status due to the emotional trauma they are going through and much more. When I stumbled upon this issue in Africa and caught my attention greatly. When people think of global issues, you think more about environmental issues, buisness issues, government issues and things along those lines, but never whether a child is left without their parent. It might not seem like a great issue to bring up, but it is, especially since it is happening at such a high level in Africa. 1 in 5 children in South Africa's rural areas live with only one parent, or no parents at all. The rural areas are said to be the areas with the highest number of orphans.

You may be wondering why so many children are left without parents. Well, living in Africa there is a widespread issue of HIV/AIDS. In 2008, 29 percent of South African women were HIV positive during their pregnancy.  Even though the HSRC found that 97 percent of pregnant women with AIDS had accessed care pregnancy, some even recieving care more than five times during the pregnancy, the death rate of these women is still extremely high. AIDS is non cureable, but can be slowed down and helped slowly with the right treatment, of course, Africa is the poorest continent so you can not expect that it would have the best healthcare for those patients.  In 2008 a survey was taken, with the results being that one in five children under the age of 2 were hospitalized for approximately 6.8 days a year, and less than 70 percent of children were immunized against ANY childhood diseases. Health care for your child no matter what should provide immunizations as it is well known that children can develop these diseases much quicker than adults. The main goal here is to improve health care in Africa so that these children and their parents can live their life with as little disease as possible, and to avoid death.
The United Nations defines an orphan as " a child who has lost one or both parents ".  On a global scale, about 16 million children that are under the age of 18 have become orphaned due to AIDS. 14.8 million of these children are from Sub-Saharan Africa. On the webpage that I last hyperlinked, you will see that there is a large chart for percentages and numbers of orphans due to AIDS for many different countries in Africa. This chart is truly moving to imagine how many children are left without their parents due to an uncureable disease; It is extremely heartbreaking. The loss of a parent or parents can have a huge impact on a child. If they were previously living with their parents at a young age before becoming orphaned, they will usually experience neglect, emotional unstability and the basic needs that their parent would give them, because their parent would simply not have the energy or strength to do so. Children can then in the future develop serious anxiety problems, extreme stress, depression and more. Although this may not seem like a huge issue, it is. Everyone always states how " children are the future ", well, they are. When we finally find a cure for this and are able to start to put back together the continent of Africa, it would be great if these children were still alive and well, physically and mentally.

African Orphans

Take time to look at the every day life of an AIDS orphan here