Children of AIDS : Africa's Orphan Crisis

AIDS has ravaged Africa. South of the Sahara, the epidemic is catastrophic. Every day 1700 South Africans contract HIV, and in Botswana over a third of adults are infected. With the death toll ever increasing, this book explores how governments, charities and families are responding to the next wave of the crisis: millions of orphaned children.Told through moving first-hand testimonies and lucid commentaries, "Children of AIDS" gives an unparalleled insight into the reality of day to day life for the street orphans, carers, volunteers, doctors and family members living through the crisis across South Africa, Zambia and Uganda. The extended family is the traditional safety net for orphans, but under this kind of strain other ways of coping with the crisis are emerging. In addition to family case studies, Emma Guest looks at childcare projects, fostering schemes and orphanages; the benefits and difficulties of international involvement; and the prospects for children living on the streets or in child-headed families.These accounts of personal courage and resilience in the face of unimaginable poverty and bereavement are both disturbing and awe-inspiring. Emma Guest questions what w AIDS has ravaged Africa. South of the Sahara, the epidemic is catastrophic. Every day seventeen hundred South Africans contract HIV, and in Botswana over a third of adults are infected. With the death toll ever increasing, this book explores how governments, charities and families are responding to the next wave of the crisis: millions of orphaned children.

Told through moving first-hand testimonies and lucid commentaries, Children of Aids gives an unparalleled insight into the reality of day to day life for the street orphans, care-takers, volunteers, doctors and family members living through the crisis across South Africa, Zambia and Uganda. The extended family is the traditional safety net for orphans, but under this kind of strain other ways of coping with the crisis are emerging. In addition to family case studies, Emma Guest looks at childcare projects, fostering schemes and orphanages; the benefits and difficulties of international involvement; and the prospects for children living on the streets or in child-headed families.

These accounts of personal courage and resilience in the face of unimaginable poverty and bereavement are both disturbing and awe-inspiring. Emma Guest questions what will happen to the minds of a generation that grows up alone, poor and ashamed by the stigma of the disease that killed their parents. By revealing the way that individuals are affected by AIDS, and how they cope with such an epidemic, Guest also shows what others can do to help, and a list of aid agencies and contact addresses is included.