The staggering number of African children already orphaned due to AIDS is only the beginning of a crisis of gargantuan proportions, and “the worst is yet to come,” warns UNICEF in a report issued today.
AIDS has already orphaned more than 11 million African children, half of whom are between the ages of 10 and 14. Seven years from now, the number of AIDS orphans is expected to have grown to a staggering 20 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone, bringing the number of orphans in the region to a total of 42 million.
The UNICEF report – Africa’s Orphaned Generations - shows that the countries that will see the largest increase in the number of orphans -- Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland -- are those with HIV prevalence levels already higher than previously thought possible and now exceeding 30 per cent.
