East Africa: AIDS orphans
- PMID: 12290152
East Africa: AIDS orphans
Abstract
PIP: The number of orphans in East Africa is growing rapidly due to the combined effects of the atrocities in Rwanda and Burundi and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic. To meet their needs, Ukimwi Orphans Assistance (UOA), a nonprofit nongovernmental organization (NGO), was founded by East Africans in 1990; it has built "secondary family structures" of NGOs in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. Needs assessment studies showed that food producing and income generating projects had highest priority, but communities have made strides in housing, education, and health. Communal food plots, repair and building of shelters, using traditional crafts to earn money for school fees, developing remedial schools, and organizing traditional medical practitioners into clinics have all been undertaken in the effort to stop disease, restore normal living, and forestall socioeconomic collapse. UOA has found that culture-based programs succeed because they offer guarantees of sustainability and cost effectiveness. African principles of kinship and extended family are used to develop resources for providing minimum assistance and to rebuild caring and supporting communities for the children. Determined community efforts should be an incentive for increased external aid.
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