ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

In the next couple of years, there could be as many as one million orphans and vulnerable children in Zambia 

Muyunda Nyambe, (not his real name), a 12 year-old-boy, looks at the rising sun, as he walks down the track on his way to the only community school in a radius of 6 km in Livingstone’s Mwandi area. He stops for a moment to measure his shadow with a nearby shrub, to see if he is late for school. The shrub’s shadow has shortened, a clear message that his schoolmates are already in class. The shrub has acted as his timekeeper ever since he started school nine months ago. As far as Muyunda’s concerned, he’s late for school.

Muyunda moves faster along the path and in doing so, stubs his left toe on a sharp stone, and blood starts to ooze freely. It’s painful and he sobs quietly as he limps slowly to school. He looks at the rising sun and wonders why the world is so unfair to him. It all started yesterday when he hadn’t had much to eat for supper, as his old grandmother had only cooked a few mushrooms she’d picked from the bush. Secondly, he had to clean the pots, sweep the surroundings of his grandmother’s house before starting off for school.

He limps along slowly, remembering how well he’d lived with his parents in Lusaka. Only a few months ago, his parents had died in the city of Lusaka, and he thinks about them and the rumour that kept going the rounds in his neighbourhood that they’d died from AIDS.

Zambia’s orphan population

Muyunda is one of over 800,000 orphans and vulnerable children who are affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Zambia. According to the Central Board of Health, the number  is likely to swell to 1 million orphans and vulnerable children in the country in the next couple of years.

It’s estimated that 20% of Zambia’s population over 15 years-old, is infected with HIV. Due to poverty and lack of proper medical facilities, many who are infected are likely to die in their prime of life. This will result in an increase in the number of orphans and vulnerable children in the country. The growing number of orphans will have a profound impact on the communities in which they live.

Orphans suffer from: The loss of their families; depression; increased malnutrition; lack of health care; increased demands on them for their labour; lack of education; loss of inheritance; forced migration; starvation; exposure to HIV infection.

In the African culture, the extended family has always been the first line of response in caring for children left behind by those who have died. However, this is creating problems for already over-burdened communities.

Meeting childrens’ needs

Zambia needs urgent, rapid and large-scale intervention to help meet the needs of the ever-increasing number of orphans and vulnerable children. Some of the strategies being implemented to help mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children, are those carried out by such organisations as the Strengthening Community Partnerships for the Empowerment of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (SCOPE-OVC). This project is being implemented by CARE INTERNATIONAL ZAMBIA and is supported by Family Health International, with funding from USAID.

The SCOPE-OVC Project was established in January 2000 to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC)s in Zambia, by mobilizing, upgrading and strengthening community-based and community-led responses. The Project operates in 12 districts: Lusaka, Kitwe, Livingstone, Mongu, Chipata, Kalomo, Serenje, Masaiti, Kabwe, Monze, Ndola and Lundazi.

SCOPE-OVC is working to help local communities meet the needs of children living among them. The Project awards grants to community based organizations and organizations supporting OVCs.

One of the success stories of SCOPE-OVC‘s intervention, is in Masaiti district in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province. SCOPE-OVC gave the local OVC/Care and Prevention Team, US $5,194.81 for gardening and an agro-shop. From this grant, the local community bought an electric grinding mill and have been able to send 46 children back to school, in addition to the 97 OVCs they are supporting.

Another success story is in Livingstone, where the SCOPE-OVC Project gave a grant worth US $6,909.64 to the Southern Mapenzi Settlement Scheme for the Blind, to purchase treadle pumps and sprayers to help  improve their vegetable gardening project. The Settlement Scheme Chairman, Mr. Davison Mainza Macacani, says: «The communities in the area are now running profitable gardens». He says the grant has helped 160 orphans and vulnerable children in the area.

The grants support various activities ranging from community schools, income-generating activities, agriculture, and HIV/AIDS awareness programmes.

• Felix Kunda, Zambia, February 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment