wfn.org | AIDS epidemic leaves half-million orphans in Zambia

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 6, 1999    News media contact: Linda Bloom**(212) 870-3803**New York
10-31-71B{409}

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia has so devastated the
family structure that the southern African country now has half a million
orphans, with their numbers expected to double by the year 2010.

"You can see evidence of this on the street," said Suzanne Matale during an
Aug. 4 World Day of Prayer address sponsored by Church Women United. A
member of the African  Methodist Episcopal Church, Matale is the Women's
Desk Coordinator for the Christian Council of Churches in Zambia.

Many of the orphans, she explained, have no place to live and no one to care
for them. That's why the council is asking its 19 member denominations and
14 associate members to start small programs for the orphans in their
particular communities. "We are saying open up your churches," Matale added.
"Let them be havens for your kids." 

United Methodist bishops have responded to the critical needs of children in
Africa by establishing a campaign called "Hope for the Children of Africa."
As a response to that campaign, the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries has created a "missioners of hope" program. The agency
commissioned 60 missionaries, most of whom are African, at a July service in
Zambia to work exclusively with ministries for children in Africa.

About 20 percent of Zambia's population - one in every four or five persons
- is infected with HIV, she said. Because of insufficient hospital beds,
AIDS patients usually are sent back home to their families. The Christian
Council of Churches has started a home-based program focusing on both
prevention and care of HIV/AIDS suffers and also is providing education and
counseling.

Children are often moved from one relative to another as their parents and
other family members die off. Matale's uncle, for example, lost five
children - all suspected of dying from AIDS-related causes. The uncle and
aunt were left  to cope with the 21 surviving grandchildren.

Although there are established orphanages in Zambia - most run by the
Catholic Church - "they're bursting at the seams," she said. "They can't
take any more kids."

The hope is that churches can help resettle children orphaned by AIDS back
into their extended families or with foster mothers in the same community.

The AIDS situation is worsened by Zambia's poor economic conditions and high
unemployment - a situation Matale blames on the "structural adjustment"
programs imposed by such groups as the International Monetary Fund and World
Bank. In a country with no social welfare system, people are scrambling to
eke out a living, she added.

As sub-regional coordinator for Southern Africa with the All Africa
Conference of Churches, Matale also has been involved with issues of war and
peace.

Zambia has not been subjected to civil war, but has received refugees from
countries that are - Angola, Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. The women in Zambia
have weekly prayers for peace. 

"We know sometimes there is very little we can do," Matale said. "But we
know, as women, we can tell how we feel." 

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