Village Journals
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Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
The end of orphanages
Although exact numbers are hard to come by - the United Nations estimates that at least 12 million children in Africa have lost one or more parents to Aids - there are millions of others whose parents have died from war and hunger.
Mozambique is at the centre of this crisis. With a population of almost 19 million people, Unicef estimates that there are some 1.6 million orphans, and estimates the number orphaned by Aids - now at 380,000 - will double within five years.
"Everything revolves around the community," says Thierry Delvigne-Jean, Unicef's spokesman in Mozambique. "If we are to succeed in dealing with this increasing number of orphans, it's really at the community level that it's going to happen. But it will have challenges. We're talking about huge numbers."
Meanwhile, the HIV infection rate here is growing. In 1998, 8 per cent of the country's adults were infected with the HIV virus, says Delvigne-Jean. Today, the infection rate is at 16.2 per cent. Here in Beira the infection rates are some of the highest in the country - close to 30 per cent of adults in the city are HIV-positive.
The only true way to manage the swell of vulnerable children is to prevent more parents from dying, say aid workers and experts. But in the meantime, groups trying to help have almost universally shifted to community-based care.
In Mozambique, there are hundreds of local aid groups who try to offer support to different neighbourhoods, hoping that improved living conditions will make distant relatives and acquaintances more willing to take in orphaned children.
Shift
The government has also upped its monetary support to families caring for orphans. Few organisations are building orphanages, and many aid workers here now refer to the word "institution" with disdain.
Barbara Hofmann knows all about this shift. A former financier from Italy, Hofmann started Asem as a soup kitchen in 1991 - her own personal response to the flood of orphaned and abandoned children coming to Beira in the waning days of the war. During the 1990s, the organisation grew to include orphanages, schools, and community centres.
But after years of trying to make more space for orphans, she says, now she and her staff are working to move youths out of their centres. Of the 400 or so orphans they housed a few years ago, barely 100 remain, and Hofmann expects that number to drop further.
archive.gulfnews.com
Mozambique is at the centre of this crisis. With a population of almost 19 million people, Unicef estimates that there are some 1.6 million orphans, and estimates the number orphaned by Aids - now at 380,000 - will double within five years.
"Everything revolves around the community," says Thierry Delvigne-Jean, Unicef's spokesman in Mozambique. "If we are to succeed in dealing with this increasing number of orphans, it's really at the community level that it's going to happen. But it will have challenges. We're talking about huge numbers."
Meanwhile, the HIV infection rate here is growing. In 1998, 8 per cent of the country's adults were infected with the HIV virus, says Delvigne-Jean. Today, the infection rate is at 16.2 per cent. Here in Beira the infection rates are some of the highest in the country - close to 30 per cent of adults in the city are HIV-positive.
The only true way to manage the swell of vulnerable children is to prevent more parents from dying, say aid workers and experts. But in the meantime, groups trying to help have almost universally shifted to community-based care.
In Mozambique, there are hundreds of local aid groups who try to offer support to different neighbourhoods, hoping that improved living conditions will make distant relatives and acquaintances more willing to take in orphaned children.
Shift
The government has also upped its monetary support to families caring for orphans. Few organisations are building orphanages, and many aid workers here now refer to the word "institution" with disdain.
Barbara Hofmann knows all about this shift. A former financier from Italy, Hofmann started Asem as a soup kitchen in 1991 - her own personal response to the flood of orphaned and abandoned children coming to Beira in the waning days of the war. During the 1990s, the organisation grew to include orphanages, schools, and community centres.
But after years of trying to make more space for orphans, she says, now she and her staff are working to move youths out of their centres. Of the 400 or so orphans they housed a few years ago, barely 100 remain, and Hofmann expects that number to drop further.
archive.gulfnews.com