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Orphanages
Kenya, South Africa and Zambia all have an increasing number of orphans - that is - children that have lost one or both parents.
Why is this?
The main reason is the high number of deaths from AIDS related infections. But also War, malaria, cholera and famine have helped to increase the number of children and teenagers who are orphans.
Is it really that bad?
Kenya has about 18,155,000 children of which 2.2 million (12.1%) aged between 0-17 are orphans. 1.1 million - that's 50% - have become orphans because of AIDS.
South Africa has almost as many children as Kenya - 18,349,000. But more of these - around 2.5 million (13.6%) - between 0-17 years old are orphans. Out of this total, nearly half - 1.2 million children - are orphans because of AIDS.
Zambia has a much smaller population and so also less children - around 6,164,000. But the number of children who are orphans is much higher at 1.2 million or 19.5%. More than half - 720,000 - are orphans because of AIDS.
Projections by the UN suggest that by 2010, there will be 53.1 million children under 18 without one or both of their parents in Africa. 15.7 million of these will have had parents who died of AIDS.
(Data from UN 2005 & 2006)
In the UK the government helps orphans - can't African governments just do the same?
Not really. The number of orphans is much higher than in the UK and most governments do not have the capacity or resources to help all orphans and vulnerable children.
Does anyone help them?
Yes. A lot are helped by individuals, churches and NGO's. One such group is the East African Women's League (EAWL), Kenya's equivalent of the Townswomen's Guild, or if that still doesn't mean anything to you, watch the movie "The Calendar Girls." As the name implies, all "League" members are women, and they share a common desire to help women and children. Much of this energy is spent in support of children's homes, and with 24 branches nationwide, they offer geographical spread in addition to unrivalled organisational capacity. It should come as no surprise therefore that most of the orphanages that have received Alive & Kicking balls have got them because they were known to EAWL.
To find out more about the orphanages we support in Kenya visit: www.saidia-gilgil.org.uk or www.limuruchildrenscentre.com
