Orphans, HIV and AIDS

Introduction

"Since the death of my father, we have been living with our grandparents. I earn 50 or 60 rupees a day by selling vegetables or pulling the rickshaw. I have three younger brothers. I want to study, but my grandfather says he cannot afford to keep us in the house unless I contribute my family's share." 16-year-old boy orphaned by AIDS, India

Eustice, 19, is head of the household since her parents and elder sister died of AIDS (Zambia).

This is a familiar story for all too many children. More than 13 million under-15s have lost one or both parents to AIDS. This is about 12 per cent of all the orphaned children in the world: in 2002, there were about 108 million orphans altogether.

To get some idea of what these statistics really mean, you have to look at the consequences for individual children.

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