Sub-Saharan Africa - HIV/AIDS Policy Fact Sheet July 2008...and my thoughts obviously

http://www.kff.org/hivaids/upload/7391-071.pdf
I will summarize....67% of the people living with HIV, 70% of the new infections and 75% of HIV related deaths are found in this region which amazingly has 11 - 12% of the world's population! Forget malaria and everything else HIV is the leading cause of death in this region. South Africa has 5.7 million people living with the HI Virus...the highest number in the world and Swaziland small as it is has the highest prevalence in the world.
Women are infected more than men in this region.
Now get this of all the children living with HIV in the world 1.8 million live in this region which is 90% of the world's under 15 HIV +ve AND 11.6 million of the world’s 15.0 million AIDS orphans live in Sub- Saharan Africa.

Now if you have been reading my recent entries you will see that I am moving my work to these children. 11.6 million was the population of the whole of Zimbabwe in 2002 that gives you the scale of what that figure means. Now we know the risk of HIV infection and it's impact feeds on the violations of human rights including discrimination against women and marginalized groups such as sex workers and people who inject drugs which also begets further violations such as further discrimination and in some cases violence.

Now you have right now 11.6 million children living in areas where a lot of their human rights are a luxury. They do not know them as rights and access to them is well you can sum that up.
Sub Saharan Africa is sitting on a time bomb right now. These children need major help. They need access to education and facilities that equip them to be citizens who are able to build the region. Another thing we all usually over look is that these children need to be in a society where they get support, encouragement and love.

Life has been very hard for these children from a very early age and they have suffered discrimination at very early stages in their lives. Foster care in places like Zimbabwe is difficult and I feel this is where the communities step in. Just to love and nurture and to give time. This can be done by people already in the communities and the churches we have.

If we are too busy to do this we run the risk of having a lot of anti-social behaviour in our midst which starts that cycle of abuse that makes HIV feel at home. I believe support for these communities is a key point in the fight against HIV.