Orphans In Africa Research Articles

Reviews & Resources: Children of AIDS: Africa's Orphan Crisis, Social Support: A Reflection of Humanity, Friendgrief: An Absence Called Presence, for the Living: Coping, Caring and Communicating with the Terminally Ill

Reviews & Resources: Children of AIDS: Africa's Orphan Crisis, Social Support: A Reflection of Humanity, Friendgrief: An Absence Called Presence, for the Living: Coping, Caring and Communicating with the Terminally Ill

Supporting community efforts to assist orphans in Africa.

As a result of the AIDS epidemic, an increasing number of children throughout the world have lost their parents. Africa has been hardest hit by the pandemic, and millions of children have been left orphaned. In this Sounding Board article, Foster, who works in a hospital in Zimbabwe, describes the scope of the problem and argues that external aid agencies must work with local communities to distribute resources effectively to assist children who have been orphaned.

Beyond education and food: psychosocial well‐being of orphans in Africa

Beyond education and food: psychosocial well‐being of orphans in Africa

Children of AIDS: Africa's orphan crisis

The epidemic has been catastrophic south of the Sahara. Children of AIDS explores how families, charities and government are responding to the next wave of the crisis - millions of orphans. This collection of true stories reveals the experiences of orphans, street children, grandparents, aunts, foster parents, charity and social workers, and foreign donors across South Africa, Zambia and Uganda.

Children of AIDS: Africa's Orphan Crisis

Children of AIDS: Africa's Orphan Crisis

The capacity of the extended family safety net for orphans in Africa

This paper reviews published studies on orphans and describes indicators by which weakened or saturated extended family safety nets can be identified. Most orphans in Africa are still being cared for by members of their extended family. The traditional safety net for orphans in Africa used to be their aunts and uncles. The alternate safety net of grandparents or more distant relatives is becoming prevalent as a result of weakening of the extended family and increasing orphan numbers; comparative data on uncle/aunt:grandparent caregiver rates are presented. Indicators of the strength of the extended family safety net include the prevalence of widow remarriage, purposive fostering and contact with relatives. Measures of the weakening of the safety net include the paternal:maternal caregiver ratio, the uncle/aunt:grandparent caregiver ratio, the prevalence of child-headed households, sibling dispersal and migration. Increasing numbers of children are slipping through the extended family safety net, leading to child-headed households, street children and child labour; such children have increased likelihood of physical, social, economic and psychological morbidity and vulnerability to HIV infection. It is essential to understand extended family safety net mechanisms so that proposed orphan initiatives support rather than undermine traditional orphan care.

Growing numbers of AIDS orphans in Africa

Growing numbers of AIDS orphans in Africa