Irish Red Cross needs donations for African orphans

The hunger in Southern Africa is coinciding with an unprecedented number of orphans, mostly due to the impact of HIV/AIDS, says the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

There are more than three million children in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Swaziland and Lesotho who have lost a mother or both parents, according to figures from the July 2002 report "Children on the brink", issued by UNAIDS, UNICEF and USAID - A Joint Report on Orphan Estimates and Program Strategies.

Zambia, has nearly 900,000 orphans, 17.6% of the child population according to UN figures. Among them, two thirds have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. In Zimbabwe, the situation is worse. It has more than one million orphans, nearly 77% left parentless by AIDS.

In Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland, orphan figures are similar to those of Zambia and Zimbabwe with between 50-60% of orphans having lost at least one parent from AIDS. Where one parent has died from AIDS, the probability that the child has already lost or will lose the other parent too, is relatively high.

These children are among the first to suffer in the rapidly developing food crisis in the region. In a culture where there is a tradition of support from extended family members at times of trouble, the food shortages and the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS are putting an unbearable strain on households and forcing people to make impossible choices.

"The food crisis is seriously overstretching the capacity of extended families to absorb the needs of orphans and what we are seeing is families having to make a choice between feeding orphans or seeing their own children go hungry. Often it is the orphans that lose out,"says the International Federation's Regional Food Security Coordinator for Southern Africa, Renny Nancholas.

The situation will be compounded if donors fail to respond sufficiently to appeals for funds to alleviate the food shortages in the region. The International Federation had launched an appeal for €61.6 million for these five countries last month. However the response has been disappointing, only 15.8% of this amount has been raised so far.

"The food crisis is deepening every day. There is still time to stop it from evolving into a humanitarian disaster, but donors must respond now before it is too late. We need to make food available to the most vulnerable households urgently,"says Iain Logan, Disaster Operations Manager for the International Federation.

Red Cross societies in Southern Africa already provide orphans with supplementary food and the International Federation appeal for the region targets households that are unable to cope with the food shortage because bread-winners are living with HIV/AIDS.

The Red Cross has the best access to the local infrastructure in all the countries in Southern Africa and is asking Irish people to make a donation to help these people in need.

Please help, you can donate in any of the following ways:
You can make a credit card donation by phoning: 1850 50 70 70 (price of a local call)

You can post a cheque or postal order made payable to The Irish Red Cross to:
Irish Red Cross, 16 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland

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