Preview

Factors Affecting Hiv/Aids Orphans in Kenya

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
10362 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Factors Affecting Hiv/Aids Orphans in Kenya
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1Background information
A joint study by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) found out that at the end of 2001, 13.4million children under the age of 15 had lost one or both parents to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The increase in AIDS, which orphans many children, is one of the major challenges in many countries. According to HIV/AIDS Perspective (2004), one of the worst consequences of AIDS is the large number of children orphaned as a result of parents dying from AIDS. By mid 1997, 10 million children under the age of 15 had lost their parents to AIDS worldwide [and] at the end of 2000, there were more than 13 million orphans worldwide (Deame 2000). Presently there are 15 million children who have lost their parents to AIDS. This is because of rise in poverty, poor health care systems, and limited resources for prevention and care which fuel the spread.

AIDS is responsible for leaving a large number of children in Africa without one or both parents, in some countries larger proportions have lost their parents to AIDS than to any other cause of death. This means that were it not for AIDS epidemic, these children would not have been orphaned. According to Robbins (2004), AIDS has already orphaned more than 12 million African children. These numbers are projected to increase since millions of children currently live with sick and dying parents. In Africa, there are millions of children orphaned by AIDS and they suffer from the tragedy of losing both parents to AIDS. In addition, they grow up in deprived and traumatic circumstances without support from their immediate family members, without parental care and love and most are deprived of their basic rights to shelter, food, health and education. In Africa 7000 young people are infected everyday 2000 of these are mostly



Bibliography: Aggletton Peter, Shalini Bharat and Paul Tyler (2001), HIV AIDS-related Discrimination, Stigmatization and Denial In India: (Geneva: UNAIDS) Avert Mcfee (2004) “AIDS orphans” Available at www.avert.org/aidsorphans.html (last accessed on10/02/11) Bell Clive, Shanta Devarajan and Hans Gersbach (2003) The Long-Run Economic Costs of AIDS. Theory and Application to South Africa, Working Paper Washington: World Bank De Waal Alex (2002) “What AIDS Means in Famine,” New York Times, November 19,2002 Deame Laura (2000)” Earth Trends: A Generation of Orphans.” Available at www.earthtrends-wri.org/feature. (last accessed on 10/02/11) Donahue J Food and Agriculture Organization (1996) “AIDS and Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.” Available at http: www.fao.org/ (last accessed on 10/02/11) Foster G Kalippeni, Craddock, Oppong and Ghosh (2004), HIV/AIDS in Africa, Blackwell Publishing UK Lewis S Publishing, Melbourne Monasch and J Ties Boerma (2004) ‘Orphanhood and childcare patterns in Sub- Saharan Africa: An analysis of national surveys from 40 countries’, AIDS 18 (suppl Nyasato Robert and Samuel Otieno (2002) HIV/AIDS: Over 1600 Minors Die Daily, Africa News Service October 6, 2003, Panpanich R., Brabin B., Gonani A Salaam T. (2005), AIDS orphans and vulnerable children (OVC): problems, responses and issues for congress, Congressional Research Service Semali I UNAIDS (2003) “Accelerating Action against AIDS in Africa”, Available at http://www.unaids.org (last accessed on 11/03/11) UNAIDS (2003) “Progress Report on the Global Responses to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic UNAIDS (2010), UNAIDS report on Global AIDS Epidemic UNICEF (2003) “State of the World’s Children,” Available at http: www.unicef.org/ (last accessed on 16/02/11) UNICEF (2003), Africa’s Orphaned Generations, Available at www.unicef.org/publications (last accessed on 24/02/11) UNICEF (2003), Nutrition-Southern Africa humanitarian crisis, presented at the UN/SADC stakeholders meeting World Bank (2003), ‘Early Childhood Development and HIV/AIDS’ Available at http://www.worldbank.org. (last accessed on 16/02/11) World Economic Forum (2003) “African Food Security: A Role for Public-Private Partnership.” Yamano T. and Jayne T.S (2002), Measuring the Impact of Prime-age Adult Death on Rural Households in Kenya. Staff Paper 2002-26. Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing Publishers, USA

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Aids and the Reagan Era

    • 1507 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Epstein, H. (2007). The Invisible Cure:Africa, the West, and the fight against AIDS. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux: New York, NY.…

    • 1507 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Shah, Anup. "AIDS around the World." Global Issues: Aids Around the World. N.p., 29 Nov.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: Shepard, Ben (2013). Fighting the Global AIDS Epidemic Retrieved from http://www.investingdaily.com/16156/fighting-the-global-aids-epidemic on February 8, 2013…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every day around the world 900 children become infected with HIV - the vast majority through mother-to-child transmission because their mothers do not have access to the medicine they need to prevent the transmission. This staggering statistic and the global pediatric pandemic is what the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation are advocates for.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Human Sciences Research Council (2009). HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Retrieved May 23, 2010, from website: http://www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    children who were orphans had lost their parents at a young age because of AIDS…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sub-Saharan Africa Essay

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One of these consequences is the increased propensity of child-headed households in sub-Saharan Africa. Child-headed households are defined as a household that operates under the care and supervision of a person who is under 18 years of age (Mturi). As mentioned earlier, the density at which these types of households are found has increased dramatically. The main cause of child headed households is the death or illness of one of both parents. Coincidentally, the main cause of early adult death in sub-Saharan Africa has been the contraction of HIV (Mturi). Since most child-headed households are formed due to the death of a parents and one of the main causes of early adult death is HIV/AIDS, most of these children are also HIV/AIDS orphans (Boler). Unfortunately, “these children often live through the experience of dealing with parental illness, and for many the experience of carrying the responsibility for a household begins some time prior to being orphaned” (Takashi,Yasuharu). Sadly, many of the problems that orphans have are magnified exponentially when they are left to fend for themselves. These challenges…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Aids in Africa Essay 21

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Thirty-three million people have AIDS in the world. Africa has two-thirds of that number. According to the United Nations Aids Program on HIV/Aids, and World Health Organization (WHO), estimates, seven out of ten people newly infected with HIV in 1998 live in sub Saharan Africa. Among children under 15, the proportion is nine out of ten. Of all Aids deaths since the epidemic started, eighty-three percent have been in the region. These numbers sound even more astonishing considering only one-tenth of the world's population lives in Africa, south of the Sahara. The amount of Africans affected by the epidemic is frightening. Since the start of the epidemic, an estimated 34 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa have been infected with HIV. Approximately 11.5 million of those people have already died, one-fourth of them being children. During the course of 1998, Aids has been responsible for an estimated two million deaths in Africa. There is about 21.5 million men and women living with HIV in Africa, plus an extra one million being children. Four million of those people contracted the infection in 1998 alone (Mail 8 guardian).…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aids in Africa Essay 10

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It is very clear that AIDS is an important health problem for the whole planet and specially for Africa.This kind of problems need the attention of all the factors with responsibilities in public health,starting with the governments but,of course,continuing with the pharmaceutical companies,the nongovernmental organizations,massmedia,physicians,the church ,the red cross etc.In this big fight against AIDS we cannot let all the difficulties in the back of the pharmaceutical companies but I believe they can do more than they did and all the others can do more than they did.…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Varghese, B., Maher, J., Peterman, T., Bronson, B., and Steketee, R. (2002). Reducing the risk…

    • 2305 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the Looking Class

    • 1691 Words
    • 7 Pages

    AIDS has many severe social and economic consequences in Africa, and these negative effects are expected to continue for many years. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most commonly effected area, while other regions in Africa will…

    • 1691 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lilia Garcia-Leyva, Executive Director of the M•A•C AIDS Fund said, "The statistics on pediatric HIV/AIDS remain staggering. Every single day nearly 2,000 children around the world are infected with HIV, 1,320 children just in Africa alone. It is critical to bring treatment to the children and families in the impoverished countries where there is a severe lack of resources, and therefore we are focusing on that specific goal with this year's…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Aids Epidemic

    • 2320 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The region of sub-Saharan Africa is the worst in terms of infection. Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and Lesotho are all similar in the sense that they have infection rates reaching merely 40%. Over 11 million children are orphaned by AIDS within the sub-Saharan region. Throughout the 27 million that are infected, 10 million of those are people between the ages of 15-24. 3 million of those people are under 15 years of age. Almost half of the entire pregnant demographic in Francistown, Botswana in main hospitals were tested positive for the virus. When these women give birth, their children will have up to a 90% chance of contracting HIV.…

    • 2320 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Spencer, N., 2008. Health Consequences of Poverty for Children, End Child Poverty [online]. Available at: http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/files/Health_consequences_of_Poverty_for_children.pdf [Accessed 13 February 2014].…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Eu Aid to South Africa

    • 6446 Words
    • 26 Pages

    The aim of this research report is to inform about the spread of HIV/AIDS; how can the EU work better with South Africa to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS? It is known that the problem is quit big but during this research one comes to find that South Africa has the highest number of people infected than in any other country. The annual number of death nearly doubled over the time span of 10 years. There are several causes to the booming spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Firstly the lack of availability of prevention, which is mostly based on condom use, testing, counseling and education. Secondly, Mother To Child Transmission. Without any interventions, there is almost a 45% chance that an HIV-positive mother will pass the virus on to her child. Thirdly, the lack of medication which allows infected people to live longer and healthier. And lastly, the cultural differences which causes people to have multiple sexual partners increase the chance of infection. All this is related to one common problem: the lack of finances, South Africa simply does not have enough money to take care of these causes. To the question what the EU is doing to help and if it is working it is known that contributed over 900 million euros to South Africa. The European Union has raised and funded a lot of projects in South Africa. It is not working as well as it should because most HIV transmissions in Europe are from outside the family, while in South Africa it mostly occurs within families, like for example mother-to-child transmission. This causes a focus on the wrong risk group. So this is an important point of improvement, as well as more European volunteers which could help…

    • 6446 Words
    • 26 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics