Education For Life - Kenya

The world over today has felt the impact of HIV/AIDS in diverse ways. One of the ways that soon will became  another major epidemic if not speedily taken care of  is the increasing number of orphans and vulnerable children. Are  we doing enough for the orphans and vulnerable children, can we do more than what we are doing? Yes of course you and me can do something to make a difference and not just a difference but a big one for that matter. Every time I see a Vulnerable child and or an orphan,  I think of this beautiful poem and what rings in my mind is that the greatest responsibility we can give to orphans is to stop creating  a generation of orphans.  The First call for Children from Unicef states it well.  “The children of the World are innocent, vulnerable and dependant. They are also curious, active and full of hope. Their time should be one of joy and peace, of playing, learning and growing. Their future should be shaped in harmony and cooperation. Their lives should mature as they broaden their perspectives and gain new experiences. But for many children, the reality of childhood is altogether different”

My experience
It is a Monday Morning and we are having a programme with orphans and Vulnerable children I am on the floor facilitating and when I ask a question in Swahili  “ Ni vitu gani watu wanakutendea au kukufanyia ambavyo haupendi ?”- What are some of the things that people say or do to you that you do not like?-  I get surprised to learn that the innocent children cannot construct a Swahili sentence so I get someone to translate for me, and when he translates everybody’s hand is up.

I got so touched by the fact that these children know a lot but most of them stay with their grand parents who cannot speak Swahili. I learnt that one young boy around 6 years is on ARV’s. This young boy who I will call Tony,  was always happy, playful and ready to share in class that you would hardly notice the deeply seated wounds  he was going through.

One evening after the classes I was watching the children play and then this thought crossed my mind, I started asking myself, “ Who is to blame for the situation the orphans? Who is supposed to take care of the orphans what is it that I can do to help these orphans?” That is when I thought of starting orphans page and I have called orphans corner.

My objective is to:

1. Share with you and the world as a whole our experience working with the orphans and also have you share your experience with us on working with Orphans and Vulnerable Children.
2. To be at the frontline to put across to the society, the plight of the orphans and vulnerable children and the difficult situations they find themselves in.  We find that Millions of people have died due to HIV/AIDS; most of those who have died were the bread winners and the parents to many children in the world. There are also many people who are infected and are sick that they cannot take care of their families anymore.
3. To drum up support for Programmes that cater for orphans and vulnerable children. There is great need to cater for these children’s physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological well-being.
4. To create awareness in the society of the need to be sensitive to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children. The responsibility of taking care of these children lies with the society

The Impact of HIV/AIDS can be described in three ways.

 

 

There are many countries in Sub Sahara Africa who have reached the third stage and it’s a fact that the number orphans is still expected to rise even if there are no new infections. Its also a fact that most of us( me and you hardly thin of the plight of orphans)A lot has been done and said about adults on issues related to HIV/AIDS but looking around there are still few Orphans and vulnerable children tailored programmes. Think of that orphan in your  neighborhood. Are the following statements generally true?   

True or false statements
1. Orphans are given more work than other children in the family.
2. Orphans often get harsher punishments if they make a mistake.
3. Orphans are given less food to eat than the rest of the family.
4. Orphans do not go to school for economic reasons.
5. Orphans are not allowed to eat with the rest of the family.
6. Some people believe that orphans caused the death of their parents.
7. Some people believe that orphans will misbehave and die from AIDS like their Parents did.
8. Some orphans run away to live on the street because things at home are so bad.
9. Girl orphans are more vulnerable to sexual abuse than other children.
 - Courtesy of world Vision Research in Uganda

Recently we had the First Catholic conference on HIV/AIDS and during one of our round table discussions I noticed that people just talked about orphans at a more of theoretical level rather than the practical aspect of the orphans daily life experience. I still remember one a participant suggesting that all the people in Kenya raise a shilling for the orphans and give it to the children homes. That of course tells us how lightly we take the OVC’s issue. Money cannot give the love, support, formation, mentorship, and inspiration that is important for the OVC’s growth.

Why Orphans and Vulnerable Children?

• Young children are at a critical stage of development and its at this time that  holistic care and support is essential

• Young children need parent substitutes (someone to listen to them, to talk to them, to understand their needs, to guide them etc.) However short the time a person spares with and for  the child- to listen, talk, comfort the orphsn  the child finds it helpful.

• Opportunities to meet young children’s needs are greatly reduced in HIV/AIDS affected communities, yet HIV/AIDS research, policy and programming tends to ignore young children.

 

• The Cycle of orphans

 

 

From the above diagram,  we can see how  HIV/AIDS is impacting  the lives of this young and innocent children. Parents get infected they die and the number of orphans increases. The orphans end up in the streets, become pregnant and infected and later die leaving more and more orphans.
The definition that has been used to verify who is an orphans and who is not has left out a very important group of orphans and vulnerable  looking at out cycle and having in mind the definition of orphans and vulnerable children  as “ children who are below the 18 and have lost both or one parent  both parents or their parents are incapacitated”  you will notice that there are those that still need special attention and support even if they are above 18 years.

Lets take a case where a child has lost both parents had some siblings dependent on him/her even at 18 they still have the responsibility of taking care of the little ones. Its at this pointing time in life that the orphan might resort to prostitution and that is when double tragedy begins.

With little intervention you will realize in Sub Sahara Africa most orphans at 18 will only have finished elementary level of education and thus they  can hardly qualify for any jobs. Its at this age that the orphans need to understand how to deal with their sexuality and if they don’t get someone to give the guidance at this age its easy for them to be abused and still add up the cycle of orphans. I therefore feel that even after eighteen years of age the orphans should be given a stepping stone to get into adult hood life with. If for example the money that is given for youth should be  organized in such way that a group of orphans who are eighteen and  above form groups (even at the remortest place there can be) that can be given skills on certain projects that later could help them be able to benefit from the funds, by making them be self reliant. 

At the UNGASS in June 2001, the world leaders met and realized that HIV/AIDS poses a great threat to children and other vulnerable groups, and especially in living in Sub Sahara Africa. In response the world leaders decided to provide greater support to children affected by the pandemic.  Is Kenya for example giving this support to the children as it should actually give?

 

 What would we term as provision of Greater support for OVC?

• Governments that encourage adoption of orphans  to families by loosening some of the laws that concern adoption
• Governments that work hand in hand with private institutions in the process of sensitizing and or creating awareness to the public about

• What adoption is about
• Basic skills on parenting/Guiding
• Role Modeling
• How to handle orphans with special cases ( Those infected, disabled, or too young to be adopted
• The laws that pertain any mistreatment or abuse of the orphans
• The government should help in defining what is expected of Members of parliament and government officials in community mobilization and support for the orphans.

• -A government that has a mechanism that makes it possible for the whereabouts be easily known for easy support and maintenance of the child.
• -Governments that have devised clear mechanisms that are able to address the trickle down effect to the orphan at the time of need.
• -Governments that make ARV’s easy to access  for the infected orphans Government that have proper and continuous support for the orphan until he/she  can rely on Him/Herself
• -Governments that have long term plans for the self sustainability of the orphans even after the age of eighteen 

What is the reality on the ground?

1. A child under the age of 15 dies of an AIDS related illness every minute of the day
2. Every year an estimated 300,000 children under the age of five die of AIDS related illness
3. Less than 10 percent of the children who have been orphaned or made Vulnerable by AIDS receive public Support or services
4. Less than five percent of young Children in need of Pediatric treatment are receiving it.
5. Each year an estimated 640,000 children under 15 are infected with HIV. Without treatment, half of them will die before their second Birthday.
6. Its estimated that by 2010 there will 25 million orphaned children and approximately 50 million children made vulnerable due to AIDS  

• Franciscan International –  On the Frontlines Faith Response to HIV/AIDS

 

Just how bad can it be? If governments don’t get involved, the situation for children – and the rest of society – can only get worse. Much worse. Here’s what might happen...
We are in a country in sub-Saharan Africa. Lesotho, maybe, or Botswana. The year is 2015, and Jack is 25. He has five children but he can’t spell their names because he doesn’t know how to read or write. Jack is illiterate because he wasn’t able to go to school; there was no money for school fees. His parents died when he was nine – they had been too ill to look after him properly for years beforehand – so Jack had to look after himself and his three younger sisters. The youngest girl died in an accident, for which Jack has always felt responsible as he was in sole charge of the family – even though he was only 12 at the time. There were simply no adults around to look after them. He scratches a living at subsistence farming, as he has done since he was a small child. When that fails, he goes to the local food aid distributors. Often that food runs out too, and his family simply go without. His children are smaller and weaker than their parents’ generation.

One daughter died shortly after birth; there was no one to tell her parents that
treating diarrhea can be easy. His children do attend school...sometimes. So many teachers died in the first decade of the 21st century that classes only run for half a day, six months of the year. As a result, his oldest child, eight-year-old Joshua, can barely read either. Thankfully, Jack and his wife Mary are both HIV-negative, but she still has to look after her own sister, now aged 18. Sophia was raped at 12, and contracted HIV.

Her rapist knew that, as she was an orphan, no one would bring him to justice. An NGO now provides her with anti-retrovirals but she is often unable to undertake household tasks as she is weak and malnourished. Jack sometimes feels like giving up. He sees no hope for himself, his family, or his country. So many of the people in his community face the same problems. Most of the time they rely on aid, but there is never enough. His government has belatedly recognised the problem, but the scale of it means they can do very little. In developmental terms, they are simply going backwards: compared to 2004, illiteracy rates are higher, and so are ill-health and poverty. HIV rates are static, though, because so many infected people have died.

The details of Jack’s life, although invented, could be the story for hundreds of millions of people across the developing world, and they are not so far from what has happened already. Between 1990 and 2001, for instance, the proportion of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa whose parents died from HIV/Aids went up from 3.5 per cent to 32 per cent.

The projected figures are terrifying. UNICEF’s report Africa’s Orphaned Generations says the continent faces ‘a crisis of gargantuan proportions’. And according to Children on the Brink 2002, a report published jointly by UNAIDS, UNICEF and USAID, while in 2001 there were nearly 13 million children orphaned due to Aids in Africa and Asia, by 2010 the figure is likely to approach 25 million. This is a future that must be avoided, and we have to act now. Some of what may happen to Jack has already happened. Statistics alone can’t explain the human suffering involved. Suffering which our fictional Jack – and real people like him – need never endure.
- Story by Sue George World Vision

Children have been subjected disproportionately to the impact of the pandemic, since they represent:
-14 percent of new HIV infections on global level; (700,000 of 4.9 million)
-18 percent of AIDS-related deaths annually
(570,000 of 3.1 million)
- 5.6 percent of persons living with HIV
(2.3 million of 40.3 million)
- 14 million orphans by the end of 2005
- A very small percentage of people receiving anti-retroviral therapy .

- Written and compiled by Chrispine Otieno Mkado

PLEASE SEND ME YOUR ARTICLE ON ORPHANS AND WE WILL POST IT HERE E-MAIL:chrismkado@yahoo.com .LOOK OUT FOR MORE ON ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN.