CharityHelp International

The adage that orphans did not exist in Africa has been broken due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The contemporary African tradition provided that children who had lost their parents are immediately taken in by members of their extended families, most often an uncle or an aunt. Today, however, the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on the adult population of Africa has resulted in large numbers of orphans and far fewer aunts and uncles to take them into care.

While many orphans in Africa are still taken in by their kin and other members of their community,an increasing number are slipping through this traditional safety net. For many of the children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS, the impact is severe.

UNICEF reports that sub-Saharan Africa remains hardest hit by the epidemic. By the end of 2005, 25.8 million people were estimated to be living with HIV. The region bears over 60% of the world's people living with HIV; over 90% of all children living with HIV and about 80% of the children orphaned by AIDS. In several countries in Southern Africa, at least one in five adults is HIV-positive. Nearly 90 percent of new child HIV infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is estimated that by the year 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 18 million children – more than all the children in the United Kingdom, will have lost at least one parent to AIDS. Less than 10 percent of children orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS are receiving some kind of public support.

Ripples International and CharityHelp International are working to change this woeful intervention rate.  The child sponsorship program will increase the number of children and families RI can serve in Meru, Kenya. You can begin making a difference today by sponsoring a child now!

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