Sub-Saharan Africa Essay

As we have learned in this class, orphanhood offers many complexities and tribulations to those children which this circumstance has affected. The plight of the orphan is singular and unique to each individual; however, in some cases there are geographical, political, cultural and/or other variable factors that affect very large populations of orphans, sometimes unilaterally. This appears to be the case for orphaned children living in sub-Saharan Africa. Geographically, sub-Saharan Africa consists of all the countries located south of the Saharan dessert in the continent of Africa. Orphans living in this area of the continent face severe complications that are unique to their location. Orphans in sub-Saharan Africa are severely misrepresented and
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