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AIDS in Zambia
The picture is grim
The scale and scope of the Zambian AIDS pandemic is appalling. Whilst most of those infected with HIV are adults, the impact of AIDS is felt by the whole community: from the youngest orphaned child to the oldest grandmother working to care for her grandchildren. The latest statistics (released by UNAIDS in August 2004) show that in Zambia:
• 16.5% of adults between 15-49 are HIV positive. In the Copperbelt region, where we work, rates are even higher.
• Zambians have the lowest life expectancy in the world - just 37.5 years.
• There are over one million orphans in the country (1,100,000) most of whom have been orphaned by AIDS (630,000).
• Almost one in five children in Zambia is an orphan.
Orphans are not a new phenomenon in Zambia, but the scale of the problem is. In the past, aunts and uncles took the orphaned children of their sisters and brothers into their own homes. Now, all too often the aunts and uncles are also dead, or too poor to help. To read more about the impacts of the AIDS epidemic on children click here.
In response to the AIDS crisis, the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria has gathered significant sums of money; and Zambia will get its share - but this money is not likely to be used to fund education. We believe that education and health education remain the only practical long-term anti-AIDS strategy which Africa can afford.
Click here for a chart of: Orphans in Zambia, from Children on the Brink
'Education offers a window of hope unlike any other for escaping the grip of HIV/AIDS.'
World Bank 2002 |
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