Aids Orphans Rising

Every 15 seconds, a Child-Headed Household is Formed In the developing world, the death of parents from AIDS leaves behind little children, often four or five of them, who desperately want to stay together as a family—a Child-Headed Household. Imagine watching your mother and father slowly die before your eyes, leaving you to bury them and then to raise and care for your younger brothers and sisters. AIDS Orphans Rising takes you through the daily lives of these children and answers key questions, such as: Where do they live? How do they survive? What can I do to help? There are millions of AIDS orphans! Left alone, they will be uneducated, disenfranchised, and unwanted: ripe candidates for radicalization and exploitation by dictators and terrorists. If good people like yourself do not reach out to these children so they can get love, an education and set up in some profitable enterprise, civilization will deteriorate to a point that you will not even recognize it. Each chapter provides real solutions and actions that you can take now to help these children not only survive, but succeed. "The first edition of AIDS Orphans Rising was concerned with the invisible (and exploding) crisis of child-headed households in Africa. It was originally intended to serve as a resource guidebook for concerned teachers, researchers, nonprofit organizations, and policymakers. A funny thing happened; other people began reading the book, too! Sister Mary Beth has many beautiful stories of generous strangers, young and old, who have approached her to offer help. As a result, the perspective of this second edition has been reframed to inform concerned citizens everywhere." -- Connie Mariano, MD, FACP, author of The White House Doctor 100% of all profits from this book will go to help the Child-Headed Households For more info: www.AIDSOrphansRising.org Published by Loving Healing Press www.LovingHealing.com

By 2010, there will be 25 million AIDS orphans. Left alone, they will be ripe candidates for radicalization and exploitation by dictators and terrorists, and civilization will deteriorate to an unrecognizable point. Each chapter provides links to organizations that are working on solutions to this problem.

A critical account of the politics of aid-giving.

In this emotional story of hope and inspiration, an African boy, orphaned by AIDS becomes a catalyst for AIDS orphans worldwide. Living in a shantytown in Kenya, Kevin Sumba's life was one of loneliness and hardship. Yet he was determined to get an education. Miles Roston, a documentary filmmaker, first met Kevin while making a film on AIDS orphans. He found that this particular boy touched his heart in a way he hadn't anticipated. Together, they set out to answer "Kevin's Questions" about the AIDS epidemic and more specifically, Kevin's situation. Taking Away the Distance takes us on a singular journey, as powerful policymakers and those working at a grassroots level deal with the direct, and at times confronting, questions of one boy. Along the way, we also meet people directly impacted by the epidemic and face their lives heroically: from children surviving homelessness on Nairobi's streets to a mother on her deathbed whose only thought is how to care for the children she will leave behind. As Kevin and Roston form a bond of love and respect, each learning from the other, we discover just how much our own lives can change if we dare to help.

Estimates the number of children orphaned in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as current research on the impact of AIDS and orphaning. Information about orphans in the region has increased significantly in recent years and research has become more rigorous. And, while information on other vulnerable children in the region lags far behind, the situation of some well-defined groups, such as children living with chronically ill parents, is now being studied more systematically. This report is meant to shed light on the circumstances of children affected by the AIDS epidemic and to encourage action.--Introduction.

This report forms part of a project funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to implement a strategy for the care of orphans and vulnerable children in Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe with a review of the available scientific information on interventions aimed at children, families, households, and communities.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa has defined the childhoods of an entire generation. Over the past twenty years, international NGOs and charities have devoted immense attention to the millions of African children orphaned by the disease. But in Crying for Our Elders, anthropologist Kristen E. Cheney argues that these humanitarian groups have misread the ‘orphan crisis’. She explains how the global humanitarian focus on orphanhood often elides the social and political circumstances that actually present the greatest adversity to vulnerable children—in effect deepening the crisis and thereby affecting children’s lives as irrevocably as HIV/AIDS itself. Through ethnographic fieldwork and collaborative research with children in Uganda, Cheney traces how the “best interest” principle that governs children’s’ rights can stigmatize orphans and leave children in the post-antiretroviral era even more vulnerable to exploitation. She details the dramatic effects this has on traditional family support and child protection and stresses child empowerment over pity. Crying for Our Elders advances current discussions on humanitarianism, children’s studies, orphanhood, and kinship. By exploring the unique experience of AIDS orphanhood through the eyes of children, caregivers, and policymakers, Cheney shows that despite the extreme challenges of growing up in the era of HIV/AIDS, the post-ARV generation still holds out hope for the future.