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Instead, in my trip
to South Africa for the 2000 International AIDS Conference,
I found that orphans were actually mistreated. The stigma
of AIDS is so great that neighbors were shunning them, not
sending over plates of food. Relatives were converging to
steal property—including the houses where the orphans lived.
I couldn’t believe that people could treat children like this—children.
The only time I’ve cried
during seven years of working at Positively Aware was at the
International AIDS Conference two years earlier, in Geneva.
During a presentation, a doctor from India talked about the
lack of medicines for her patients. One was a baby girl found
by an orphanage in the garbage. When they realized she had
HIV, they put her back in the garbage. The doctor showed a
slide of a beautiful, smiling little girl, now 4, petting
a cow. The thought of this baby being put in a garbage can
sent tears rolling down my cheeks for the rest of the presentation.
I had another shock during
my trip to South Africa—education is not free. Families must
pay to have their children attend school. Orphans must come
up with money to remain in school, as well as for their school
books and endless other fees. How can they do so? They usually
can’t, and end up without the education they need to become
strong adults.
Nor is there free public
health care, no county hospitals. No social safety network—no
food stamps, welfare, or public housing. Government programs
and other assistance do exist to some extent. But not like
here—not universal social welfare, not in every country.
One report raised an issue
I hadn’t even considered—how do you even find an orphan household
in order to help them? That’s a lot of work in the trenches.
There are not just large rural areas to cover, but crowded,
impoverished townships throughout Africa. What about the other
continents? The number of orphans numbs the mind—it’s in the
millions.
Moreover, households with
AIDS orphans may also exist incognito, not allowing the community
to know exactly what happened.
No doubt many neighbors and
families help (and many cultures demand it). Two photos from
the exhibit “Broken Branches” during the International Conference
astounded me. In one you see an elderly woman with the five
orphaned grandchildren she is raising. In the next photo,
it is three years later and you see her with nine orphaned
grandchildren. As for younger aunts and uncles, many of them
have died of AIDS too. Other times there are just too many
children for one household to take in. Or siblings may be
sent to separate homes.
Consider some other details.
Children may be orphaned while their parents are still alive,
due to illness that turns them into caregivers. Then there
is the trauma of watching your parents die. Because most people
with HIV/AIDS in the Third World are heterosexual, there are
even more orphans and potential orphans. Also, advocates find
that AIDS orphans are subjected to more exploitation and abuse
than other orphans, and have a higher risk of becoming infected
themselves. (The vast majority are HIV-negative.)
Last year, at a meeting on
the orphan crisis, UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy
said, “Almost without exception, children orphaned by AIDS
are marginalized, stigmatized, malnourished, uneducated, and
psychologically damaged. They are affected by actions over
which they have no control and in which they had no part.
They deal with the most trauma, face the most dangerous threats
and have the least protections. And because of all this, they
too are very likely to become HIV-positive.”
Once again, the stigma alone
kills. Some child advocates tell us not to even say “AIDS
orphans,” because that marks the children. If you’re trying
to help them, just say your program is for orphans. Otherwise
the families that come to your offices are marked by AIDS.
One organization gets around it by saying they help “orphans
and other vulnerable children in regions severely affected
by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
Others don’t like the idea
of orphanages. AIDS orphanages also stigmatize children, and
isolate them. It’s better to offer community-based services,
including home care. Well, sure, but orphanages are necessary
in every country on the planet, and not just because of AIDS.
It’s no wonder that when
protecting orphans, advocates go back to the basics—stop the
stigma. Promote education and awareness. As Archbishop Bonifatius
Haushiku declared at the opening of Catholic AIDS Action in
Namibia, an organization that helps orphans, HIV/AIDS is a
disease, not a sin.
Work to establish voluntary
counseling and testing, especially for pregnant women. Provide
Viramune (nevirapine) or other medicines to prevent mother-to-infant
transmission. Provide triple combination therapy to adults
and children.
By all means, fight for prevention
and treatment. Keep all family members alive and healthy.
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