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Quick info, By: Nicoline M.

”Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned in sub- Saharan Africa”( http://www.nyumbani.org/). Due to Aids and HIV. Mostly because the dad had it and passed it on to the mom, so they both die, and there is a big chance that the kid also has HIV or Aids.

About 1.5 million people in Kenya have died of aids. People accuse the Kenyan government for letting the aids children suffer. The aids have been passed down from generation to generation, and spreading easily, from child to child and adult to adult.
Solution

How the children live, By: Nicoline M.

They live in very poor conditions. Sometimes they live in a small mud houses. The kids who are very poor and very effected by aids, could even live in a small. cardboard box. Some lucky kids live in a little orphanage, with other kids and the people who work there.

They are usually very hungry and eat junk food or dirt and leaves, or food from a dump. They mostly drink dirty water or rain water. They arn't very healthy, and some can't even walk!

They usually don't have proper clothes, so they could wear a small cloth or some old clothes. Sometimes a neighbor could come and help them, but that barley happens.They proberly sleep on the floor or on a blanket.

Some kids with aids have been left by there parents to die because they want a healthy child. This is a big problem abnd we need a solution.

What would you need to make our solution possible? By Amanda

To help these orphans, you'd need a few things...

• A place for the home to be. Someone would have to pay rent, and keep it sanitary and organized.



• Food for the children, volunteers, and guests to eat. You'd need to hire a cook, though one might volunteer, and someone would have to pay for the expense of food.



• Furniture to use. You'd need school furniture like desks and chairs, and also household things like beds and tables.



• Some extra places for the guests to stay, and some accommodations such as a shower and bathroom.



• Volunteers or workers to teach the kids, feed them, run the part with the guests, and someone that will be there all the time as someone for the children to go to if they have any problems, to keep the kids in order, and to make sure that they're happy. That person can also take care of any younger children.

This many sound like a lot of things to do, and like it would cost a lot of money. But, in the long run, a lot of the money and work needed could be provided by from people staying there, volunteers, and other people donating money to the home. And, here are somethings that the children themselves could get out of from staying in the home:

• Shelter



• Food



• Education



• Friends to be with



• Some adults to look up to, even if they're different every day



• Adults to care for them, and love them like their own



• Lots of people to go to if they need anything



• A good idea of what the world is like from seeing and talking to the tourists that stay there



• The above gives them some good reasons incentives to live life to the maximum

All of the orphans would get a lot out of this, but what about the tourists staying there. Here are some things they'd get out of it, too.

• They'd get a new idea of the world around them



• They'd be shown how the simplest things in life can go a long way



• They'd learn to be thankful for the small things



• They'd learn different stories of kids that struggled on their own



• They'd be shown, first-hand the damage done from AIDS



• They'd have a lifetime of memories, humblings, and friends

I think that this cuold easily happen, if people cared enough. It would help both the kids and tourists, and wouldn't take too much money. Everyone just have to think that they can make a difference.

Solution By Amanda

What these children really need is a parental figure. They need someone to care for them, and love them. Almost all the children in the world have that, and these children should be no different. They need a parental figure just as much as anyone else. There are many ways to give this to them. One good idea is the following:

Create a home for some of the AIDS orphans living by themselves. This house would have the works: someone to educate them, food, health care, and caring people to talk to. But, there would be a special twist. For a very low price, tourists could stay at the home. In return for the low price, the tourists would have to play with the kids. The kids could meet a new person every day, and would get someone to play and care for them. It would be the equivalent of having parents, even if the tourists could only stay a few days. This would help them by learning from the adults, learning to talk to people, and many other skills such as how they themselves should act if they have children. It would also help them to just know that someone cares for them, and wouldn’t want to see them hurt. The children that had an HIV related illnesses would be able to enjoy every day of their life, and live life like a normal child. It would help all the AIDS orphans.
Also, the education could help prevent AIDS in the future. They could be taught about HIV and AIDS, and precautions you can take to prevent them. If they themselves has HIV or AIDS, they’d learn how to prevent it from spreading to other people. This could help change the future. Each child taught about AIDS would be one less person to die from AIDS and a couple less AIDS orphans (depending on how many kids they have.) It would help giving them a better, most likely AIDS-free life.

What do the AIDS orphans think of their situation? By Bryan

This is only my opinion. If I was one of the AIDS orphans, I will want a lot more, I will want healthy food and water so I won't be hungry all the time, if my parents is dead, I hope they can come back alive. I will also wonder why do I have to be in this poor situation. I want to go to good school, get good education, future and family.

AIDS orphans situation By Bryan

The situation for the AIDS orphans is not really good, they don't have a good home, and since they don 't have parents, they don't always get good food and healthy water. The schools some of them go to is normally poor, the children don't always get the right school supplies. And they don't always get good education like we do, their school don't have a good shelter, and they sometimes have to study in old houses.

Who helps the AIDS orphans? By Bryan

There are a lot of organizations which helps AIDS orphans in many different ways, for example they support the AIDS orphans and their family with food, water, money and supplys which they really need. The supplys that the organization support helps them to make their life easier, become more healthy and make them have a better home.

Intro to AIDS orphans by Amanda S.

In order to create a solution for our problem, we need to figure out what exactly their plight is.

HIV AIDS affects children in many countries world-wide. It affects the children in many ways- especially if the parents die from the disease. But, two thirds of everyone living with HIV live in the area south of the Sahara Dessert in Africa. Some countries heavily affected are Botswana, Swaziland, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho.

Who are the AIDS orphans (people who were orphaned because of AIDS)?
Of all the AIDS orphans in Africa, 15% of the children are 0-4 years old, 35% are from 5 to nine years old, and half are ages 10-14. These percentages are quite consistent throughout countries. Since people with more money can afford proper care for those with HIV/AIDS, it is more likely for the AIDS orphans to be poor. This also makes sense because 2/3 of all people living with HIV live in Africa, in the developing countries where there isn’t always proper medical treatment for it. Before the AIDS epidemic, about 2% of all children in developing countries were orphans. Now, the UN has estimated that 10% of all children in countries badly affected are orphans. That’s one out of ten children.

What is the cause of the problem the children face?
The cause of these children’s plight is that their parents had AIDS, or HIV- related sicknesses. Once the parents die, the children have no one to take care of them. A lot of the times they live with relatives, but sometimes they have to stay on their own with their siblings- the eldest supporting them.

What does AIDS do?
AIDS destroys part of your immune system, so you can easily get many serious infections people without the condition wouldn’t get.

How does one get AIDS, or HIV?
Through having sex with someone with AIDS/HIV, by drinking the breast milk of someone with it, sharing needles (for tattoos, steroids, drugs, piercings) with someone who has AIDS/HIV, and also, if someone who has it has a baby, the baby could easy get it. People get AIDS because HIV damaged their immune system.
Note: if one child’s parents dies of AIDS, it is likely for the other to have HIV- related illnesses, because the condition can be passed along during sexual intercourse.

Living Alone
A 13 year old AIDS orphans says this: “My sister is six years old. There are no grown-ups living with us. I need a bathroom tap and clothes and shoes. But especially, somebody to tuck me and my sister in at night-time.”
For generations, people in Kenya have had systems of taking care of the children whose parents die. But, because of the overwhelming number of people dying from HIV- related illnesses, the demand for support is too much in many areas. This leaves an astounding number of orphans to live in child-headed households.
Even if they are taken in by relatives, they tend to be unfairly treated. They are normally considered second-class members of the family, even forced to work. They getting unfair portions of food, and sometimes don’t get to go to school with other children in the family.
The AIDS orphans’ only chance to escape poverty is to get educated and get a job.

Our Project By Amanda S.

For our Humanities project, we have chosen to focus on AIDS orphans. AIDS orphans are children who have lost their parents from HIV-related sicknesses. It is expected that there will be 20 million AIDS orphans in southern Africa by 2010. We'll focus on Sub-Sahara Africa, where over one million people die each year from HIV or AIDS. Some of the things we will be focusing on are who this affects, what AIDS is, where AIDS orphans live, and who's helping these orphans. Once you have looked through what we have to offer, please leave a comment- what did you think about our solution? What could we have improved? Thank you! Amanda, Bryan, and Nicoline