VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 20:01:55 07/24/02 Wed
Author: moonotter
Subject: UN Foresees 25 Million More AIDS Orphans by 2010

UN Foresees 25 Million More AIDS Orphans by 2010


Reuters Health Information 2002. © 2002 Reuters Ltd.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.


By Stephen Pincock
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters Health) Jul 10 - The number of children who lose one or both parents to AIDS could increase to 25 million by the end of the decade, United Nations agencies said on Wednesday.

Already the scale of the problem is horrific, according to a report released Wednesday at the International AIDS Conference. Last year, 34 million children were orphaned in sub-Saharan Africa, one third of them due to AIDS, the document shows.

"This is without doubt one of the most shocking reports that has been released at this conference," said Peter Piot, the executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. The report, entitled Children on the Brink 2002, predicts that by 2010 almost 6% of all children in Africa will be orphaned because of the disease.

Piot compared the impact of AIDS on children to what occurs during wars. But fathers are killed in wars, he said, and AIDS robs children of both parents. "This unprecedented crisis will require radically scaled-up national, regional and community responses in the decades to come," he added.

The report was published jointly by UNAIDS, the UN's children's agency UNICEF, and USAID, which provides funding to fight the epidemic. It used estimates developed by the US Bureau of Statistics and data from 88 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said the AIDS crisis was "tearing apart" the traditional extended family that normally supports orphans.

"Grandparents can only cope with so many grandchildren and they're getting older as it is," she said. "And its not just looking after the children, but confronting the bias against these children as well. Children become outcasts in the community; they get thrown out of school--if they were even going to school."

Bellamy emphasized the importance of providing support to protect and care for children, to mobilize and strengthen community-based responses and to help orphans to stay in school. Governments also have a part to play by developing essential services to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children.

"There's no question that children who are orphaned are at increased risk of being outcasts in the community, of being denied even the minimal resources that might be available in these communities," she said. "That then leads to more chance that they become street children, and they will more likely be in that population that is vulnerable to AIDS."

While Africa has the highest proportion of orphans, Asia has the largest number, but fewer lost their parents to AIDS. Approximately two million were orphaned by AIDS in 2001. But just as the AIDS epidemic is spreading in Asia, so too could the number of orphans.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-6
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.