CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Moses Chitendwe, Zambia, March 1999
THEME = CHILDREN
The decline in Zambia's economy over the 1980s and 1990s,
accompanied by the unprecedented high level of poverty
and the emerging problem of AIDS orphans,
have given rise to a sharp increase
in the number of street children in the country
According to the Report, "Prospects and Sustainable Human Development in Zambia", there are already more than 70,000 street children in the country and their numbers are steadily growing. The Report says a 1991 study of street children found that, almost without exception, these are poor children from poor families. Most are on the streets, trying to make money for their families and for their own survival.
The Report continues: "It is estimated that in 1991, there were 35,000 street children and that a further 315,000 children were at risk of being drawn onto the streets. In view of the increase in urban poverty in the 1990s, there may now be as many as 70,000 street children in Zambia.
When interviewed, many children said they had lived on the street for anything between one to five years, supporting their poor parents who were generally on extremely low incomes or unemployed. The Report states that the number of street children is likely to be further swelled by the growing number of children orphaned due to their parents and guardians dying from AIDS.
When AIDS finally peaks, it is estimated that nine out of every ten orphans will be in this situation because their parents have died through AIDS. By the year 2000, it is estimated that 11% of children under 14 years of age will be orphans (making a total of 450,000 orphans).
The Report calls on the nation to take up a concerted challenge to develop urgent, new ways of caring for the orphans. The problem is well beyond the capacity of traditional caring mechanisms such as the extended family system.
The Report is also concerned about the plight of disabled children, following the government's lack of action during the national campaign mounted over the period 1980-1985.
Campaign statistics from 55 districts of the country, revealed that the rate of disability among children was around one per thousand in urban areas, and thirty per thousand in rural areas. This implies there must be about 40,000 Zambian children with some kind of disability. Most of these children are not registered as disabled anywhere. Because of problems such as illiteracy, inadequate access to health care and other basic services, the rate of disability in rural areas is significantly higher than in urban areas. The highest rates of disability, the report states, are found in the remote Luapula, North Western and Western provinces of the country.
One of the most disturbing outcomes of the campaign was that in most areas the majority of disabled children were neither attending school nor receiving special education, treatment or rehabilitation support.
It was planned that follow-up activities arising from the national campaign which registered 7,382 disabled children, would provide a basis for improving the support provided to disabled children and for developing community- based approaches to their problems. Unfortunately, since that time, the deepening of Zambia's economic crisis has meant that support for the disabled has been starved of financial and human resources.
Efforts to improve provision for the disabled have more or less come to a stand-still. This has led to an uncontrolled situation of blind people and disabled persons having to beg in the streets.
Sad to say, Lusaka, our capital city, is the worst afflicted.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1999 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement