Commentaries

Mborogo Learning Centre

• 
• 

Details

Published on Thursday, 12 February 2009 04:01

The orphans of AIDS/HIV .Most of the parents in Nyamira village are dying of HIV/AIDS. Currently, HIV/AIDS is the leading killer in all corners of Nyamira village. The gains previously made in life expectancy are tremendously reduced due to the high mortality rates from HIV/AIDS. With VILLAGE deaths occurring at the rate of nine adults a day, many children are being rendered orphans, forcing the siblings to live separately and lead desperate lives in deprived households headed by children or grandparents.
One of the worst impacts of HIV/AIDS in this VILLAGE is the alarming growth in the number of orphaned children. Through our baseline survey we identified the 37 neediest orphans with nowhere to go or no one to turn to. Some children have been identified as HIV positive. There are 321 children, up to the age of nine years old, who are affected or infected with HIV/AIDS. Due to limited funds we are unable to provide them with the support they need.

Poverty Continues to Doge Them

These children are a great burden not only to the extended families but also to the community as they turn to the village to find shelter and food. However, the greatest predicament that faces these children is the vulnerable situation that they find themselves in. They are left with nothing to fall back to upon the death of their parents, who in many cases will have sold most if not all of their property, including household items, to pay medication costs and other needs during their illness.
Left behind with no source of support, most of these children drop out of school, provide child labour, or worse still girls end up in prostitution along the streets of Kayole estate. Indeed, of late the number of street children has also increased remarkably.

A great burden for families.

Grandparents and extended families try to care for these orphans, but with great burden in abject poverty. This reality has created a category of vulnerable children who need sustainable assistance to open a window of hope for their future. In this VILLAGE, child-headed families are on the rise. Children as young as 10-to-16 years old become the guardians of the young, thus abandoning school and engaging in child labour to support the young siblings. However, the growing number of children who need care as the incidence of HIV/AIDS, increasingly burdens family structures. The extended families are seen as an alternative to care for the orphans after the biological parents pass away. Yet capacity of families to take up additional children is eroded by poverty. Much of the accommodation consists of sub-standard, one-room, galvanized, iron-sheet dwellings with little or no privacy. The poor conditions and lack of services result in general despair.