The Orphans of Disease

Marisa Berner

Ms. Tompkins

African Article

March 12, 2015

The Orphans of Disease

There are many stories about the origin of AIDS, and possibly even more about the ways to contract it.  There are rumors that have been flying about since AIDS first started becoming more well-known about being able to contract it from mosquitos, such as being around someone who tests HIV positive, or even being able to contract it by being coughed on by a person who has the disease.  All of these stories inflict upon hearers that their biggest worry is contracting AIDS.  However, that is no longer the case.  Now, unfortunately, it’s caring for the orphans whose parents who died at the hands of AIDS, a disease for which there is no cure, yet is easily contracted.

In South Africa alone, there’s reported to be 1.4 million orphans who lost their parents to AIDS as of the year 2007.  There have been families of children that have been devastated, economically and emotionally, by their parents’ deaths.  The eldest siblings, now the head of the family, are forced to drop out of school and abandon their education in order to get a job and care for their younger siblings, hopefully to finish the job that their parents couldn’t.  Lora Doman, a social worker for South Africa, presumes that even if she was able to close one family case a day in every year, she still would not be moving fast enough to help lower the rates of the orphans who are left on their own to care for themselves and their younger siblings(Baudalf).  According to Yuda Sanyu Kitali, who was both ten and the eldest when he was orphaned, spoke of being the eldest by saying  “‘Since I was the oldest, I had to build another house," Sanyu says.”’  He used mud, poles, and leaves to build them another one, and dropped out of school, along with the other two eldest siblings(Newsweek).  Unfortunately, despite the fact that all three of them were working around the clock, they all still went to bed cold and hungry on a nightly basis.

While children are being orphaned daily, the government isn’t nearly as sufficient as we would wish.  As stated in an article by The Christian Science Monitor, they would need about 16,000 social workers to be able to make a dent in the heaping pile of children’s cases, but as of now only have about 12,500, leaving the whole country wildly understaffed.  There are of course, some citizens that try to help, such as a woman who has a “Moses basket” of sorts- if a child isn’t wanted, the mother or father can go up to the front door and drop the child off in a basket set on the porch.  When a child is put in, the owner of the house is notified, and takes care of the child for as long as is necessary.  While more and more parents are dying from AIDS, the child is no longer able to be taken care of and is even deemed a burden.  And this is for the healthy children, not the ones that have contracted AIDS from their parents, or even other diseases.  Not to mention that the children have gone through the loss of a parent, and in Africa News Service, are more susceptible to suicide and depression without the proper psycho-social care that the children need.

In short, while more and more people are succumbing to AIDS, even more are succumbing to an unsightly future full of disease, poverty, and little to no education.   Education is one of the most powerful tools that a person can have, and because of AIDS, the majority of the children in Africa are unable to receive a decent education.  There is a widely renown saying that states that “The children are the future”, and as of right now, simply because of the situation in South Africa with AIDS, the future seems to be looking more and more bleak.

Works Cited

Baldauf, Scott, and Melanie Stetson Freeman. "South Africa AIDS Orphans Overwhelm Social Work Services." The Christian Science Monitor 10 May 2010: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.

"Five Ways to Reduce Trauma in HIV Orphans." Africa News Service 11 Nov. 2010: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.

"10 Million Orphans: For the Children Who Have Lost Their Parents to AIDS, Grief Is Only the Beginning of Their Troubles. The Disease's Lasting Victims." Newsweek 17 Jan. 2000: 42. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.