Inter Press Service - June 22, 2005
Moyiga Nduru

A great many of these AIDS orphans are located in Southern Africa, the epicentre of the pandemic.

"In the ten countries which comprise the Red Cross Southern Africa region, there are approximately 4,132,000 children who have already lost one or both parents to AIDS," Kenneth Motlogeloa of the South African Red Cross Society said during a recent address in South Africa's commercial hub, Johannesburg.

With governments overwhelmed by the task of educating their citizens about AIDS and providing anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) to those who have contracted HIV, the needs of AIDS orphans - and other children affected by HIV - often receive scant attention in Southern Africa. Grandparents are left to step into the gap, as well as non-governmental organisations - often in the form of volunteers like Victoria Sibisi.

Sibisi is a social worker in Soweto, a predominantly black settlement just outside of Johannesburg which houses about a million people. She volunteers for the South African Red Cross, forming part of a team that visits 126 children who have been orphaned by AIDS, or made vulnerable in other ways. This initiative got underway in the course of providing home-based care to persons who were suffering from AIDS-related illnesses.

"When we started visiting the sick in 2002 we discovered that the most vulnerable are children, so we started caring for the children. Neighbours saw us and also invited us to help them," she told the Johannesburg gathering.

"But these are not the only children. There are many others who need our assistance. Unfortunately we cannot increase the number...because we don't have the resources."

The demands of those who are suffering from AIDS-related diseases, and the ever-increasing number of children in need of attention have caused certain volunteers to feel daunted by the task at hand.

"We sometimes take food from our families and share with those who are desperate, especially those on ARVs. They need food before taking the medicine. Sometimes when we don't have food at home we give them the little money that we have," said Sibisi.

"The most discouraging part is when both the mother and the child are sick, and the mother cannot help the child."

Francoise Le Goff, head of the Red Cross in Southern Africa, says 700,000 orphans in the region have been infected with the AIDS virus. Given the dearth of ARVs to treat the children, these infections are nothing less than a "silent tsunami", she observes.

Now, efforts are underway to improve the care given to AIDS orphans.

Ten national Red Cross societies in Southern Africa are attempting to help their volunteers provide more assistance in the form of HIV education, general support and home-based care in the event of illness (including ARV provision). This will involve better coordination of current efforts to fight the pandemic and deal with its effects.

"The structure is already there. What we need is support to back up the existing local programmes on the ground," Tapiwa Gomo, the international federation's regional information officer for Southern Africa, told IPS.

"We coordinate with all the agencies dealing with AIDS orphans, including the private sector. Some have come up with sponsorships for education, but many of them sponsor a child for only a year. We think it should be a long-term programme."

Efforts are also being made to encourage the private sector and other agencies to donate clothes for orphans.

"A sustained long-term commitment is required to meet the needs of these children, to ensure that they are able to develop their full potential and lead happy, healthy and productive lives," said Motlogeloa.

Failing this, people like Christine Mnguni - also a Soweto resident - will continue to face near-insurmountable odds in caring for AIDS orphans.

"I'm left with three children. Their mother is my daughter; she died in 2004," she said Jun. 15, at the launch of the Red Cross campaign to improve care for orphans in Southern Africa.

"I can't go out to work because this child is always sick," she said, pointing to a baby strapped to her back. "I don't trust anybody with the child."

Mnguni relies on government handouts at present. "Right now, I'm dependent on a child grant that is 180 rand (about 27 dollars) a month," she said. But, this money is scarcely enough to make ends meet.

"Whenever I wake up in the morning I worry about the children's school. I want them to be educated. Sometimes the children go to school on an empty stomach - I can't even afford text books."

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, HIV prevalence in South Africa is 21.5 percent. The country also has the largest number of persons infected with the HI-virus: 5.1 million.

"It becomes a burden when a grandmother has to take care of 15 children. This is a common phenomenon in this region," says Le Goff.

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