Young child survival and development

Young child survival and development

Nutrition

Nutrition

Maternal and newborn health

Maternal and newborn health

Water, sanitation and hygiene

Water, sanitation and hygiene

Immunization

Immunization

Malaria

Malaria

Basic education and gender equality

Basic education and gender equality

Child protection

Child protection

Birth registration

Birth registration

Children on the move

Children on the move

Violence, social and gender norms

Violence, social and gender norms

Child labour and commercial sexual exploitation

Child labour and commercial sexual exploitation

Children and AIDS

Children and AIDS

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT)

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT)

Paediatric treatment and care

Paediatric treatment and care

Preventing infections among adolescents and young people

Preventing infections among adolescents and young people

Protection, care and support for children affected by AIDS

Protection, care and support for children affected by AIDS

 

Protection, care and support for children affected by AIDS

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-1798/Pirozzi

A boy orphaned by AIDS peers out the broken window of his home in Harare, Zimbabwe. He lives with his sister and receives assistance from a UNICEF-supported programme that helps child-headed households.

Eastern and Southern Africa is home to more than 9.5 million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS, representing 55 percent of all such children around the world.

In Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, more than one in four children under the age of 15 are orphans, while the figure for Namibia is more than one in three.

Where data is available, the percentage of children receiving external support remains low: Only in Swaziland (41 percent) and Botswana (31 percent) significant numbers of vulnerable and orphaned children are reached. In most other countries in the region, only around 20 percent or even much less (7 percent in Tanzania) of these children receive any kind of external support.