by Godswill Odeku

Created on: April 28, 2008   Last Updated: April 30, 2008

As the AIDS discourse gathers momentum across the African continent, we find a unique population emerging and gaining numbers. This is the population of those negatively impacted by the AIDS pandemic. Sadly, Africa claims the lion share of this unfortunate group with 13.2 million orphans - children who, before the age of 15 have lost either their mother or both parents to AIDS which constitute 95% of total AIDS-generated orphans worldwide. This population is comprised of individuals whose parents (one or both) have become, not just victims but casualties of AIDS. By this I mean they have died as a result of HIV/AIDS infection.

As these are lost to death courtesy of AIDS, left behind are a host of individuals whose lives are automatically altered by such an unfortunate development. They include both nuclear and extended family members who have to adjust to accommodate the loss of a family member to AIDS.

Apart from other relatives, there are the children of those demised through AIDS who constitute the nucleus of those we refer to as PABAs or People Affected By AIDS. These, almost always, are children and youths who are very tender in age and are still at the stage of understanding themselves and their surrounding environment.

These suddenly become orphans and must now have to adjust to the harsh realities of life without a parent, without a breadwinner and without the protective social umbrella they have enjoyed all along while their parents were alive. It is due to these that they are referred to as vulnerable children.

Imagine a child who suddenly has to fend for himself because the little resources the family had has been exhausted on the treatment of the now dead parent or guardian. Imagine a little girl who suddenly has to cater to needs of her siblings while she is yet to appreciate her personality and all that goes with it. Imagine a little boy who now has adulthood foisted on him and now has to shirk his youth and assume responsibilities of a man due to the loss of his parents. These images, you will agree with me, do not give one cause for comfort!

Ordinarily, the challenges orphans have to grapple with in our society are overwhelming, but these challenges appreciate in the case of AIDS-generated orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). Wherever they turn, children who have lost a mother or both parents to AIDS face a future even more difficult than that of other orphans. Not only do they find it difficult mixing up with the larger society, they also find

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