AIDS orphans: 'when you die, how should I do this?'.

• Author: Kim, Oksana
• Position: 10 Stories the World Should Hear More About

It's called a "memory book"--a parent dying from AIDS jots down facts and prepares her child for the grim reality of a parentless future. Following case studies in psychosocial support for children affected by HIV/AIDS in the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda, the memory book has been part of the best practices of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in counselling children. In a sense, there should have been 11 million memory books in sub-Saharan Africa for the 11 million children orphaned by AIDS. And according to predictions in the World Health Organization's The World Health Report 2004, the number of double orphans--children who have lost both parents--in the region will nearly triple by 2010 due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Otherwise, the number of children losing both parents would have ideally declined if the 1990-2000 projections were to continue. Families, therefore, are under severe strain on account of the devastation caused by the disease. The developmental challenges of one of the poorest regions in the world now directly involve the future of 11 million orphaned by AIDS, out of 34 million orphans in the region.

"The world has never faced the prospect of tens of millions of orphan kids and societies so impoverished that it is difficult to absolve them", Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, emphasized. "It has been the most difficult dimension to respond to, because no one has ever encountered this phenomenon before." According to the Report, the number of orphan children could rise to 25 million under the age of eighteen by the year 2010. Mr. Lewis said: "It is a nightmare and it must be confronted."

Caught up in the circle of cause and effect of HIV/AIDS and harmed at both ends are women and children who suffer deeper implications than men. As women bear the brunt, children are left without any caretakers. According to The World Health Report, even though men and women are victims of AIDS in equal numbers, girls and women, who average 55 per cent of all people living with HIV/AIDS, are probably more susceptible to...