Thousands of people throughout the world are responding to the human misery caused by the AIDS pandemic and working to turn the tide of this illness and its effects on the vulnerable orphaned children left in its wake.  Nowhere is this more apparent than in the southern part of Africa. Grandparents are taking care of their dying children’s children. Small communities are working through informal foster care programs. Non-Governmental Organizations (“NGO’s”) and religious groups are embracing the cause on a local level, training children to care for their dying parents and surviving siblings. Governments are investing in medical support.

Orphan-focused communities within communities are evolving. Some non-profit organizations are working to assist the neediest of these groups with starting smalll self-sustaining businesses as a means of developing financial resources for them. Other indigenous, natural responses are attempting to begin to fill the gaps in other ways left by the loss of the adults.  Unfortunately, some of these can be abusive, relying on activities like prostitution as the means for obtaining resources.

As the ‘grandparents’ who are leading many of the best orphan groups begin to die and as the wave of millions of new AIDS-related deaths becomes a tsunami, the presence of millions of more orphans will overwhelm the ability of local communities to respond to their needs. Thousands upon thousands of caring individuals from wealthier societies, from New York to Frankfurt, must respond by swinging into action to help alleviate the suffering of up to 40 million children who are now destined to be orphaned.

COMPELLING NUMBERS: The crisis of children left behind by AIDS is a humanitarian development and human rights challenge of unprecedented proportions.  More than 15 million children have been orphaned to date, with that number expected to climb to 40 million by 2010, as predicted by UNAIDS, WHO and the US Bureau of Census.  These 40 million orphans will range in age from a few weeks to young adulthood, with the bulk being from 5 to 15 years of age. They will primarily reside in sub-Saharan Africa, with countries such as Malawi, Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa being the hardest hit.

The aged and the young are being left to care for each other as best they can.  They face severe material and psychological hardships that aggravate existing poverty.  In light of the immensity of this crisis and the grave threat that it presents to the stability of affected countries and well beyond, an immediate and massive expansion of the international response is a moral and strategic imperative.

15,000,000 children without parents means 15,000,000 who are effectively disconnected from the human race, invisible, discouraged, feeling dispensable, with no dreams or belief in playing a role in the building of the world. Is there a way to really help? To move beyond the jargon, beyond the finger pointing, beyond the constant gathering of statistics, beyond the political arena, beyond the campaigns for directing dollars, beyond all the meetings and conferences and reports and bureaucracy and just get to the kids?  Consider:

Ten-year-old Ruth Teresa Awino - This soft-spoken, thin girl is holding her family together and seeing her mother through the last stages of her life.  Ruth is totally taking care of the house, her 2-year-old brother, Philip and her mother.