The Future of Africa

A vision of hopelessness and despair?

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA - With millions of African men, women and children urgently needing access to safe drinking water and drought relief as well as emergency shipments of food and medicine -- many Americans are surprised by what experts consider the most urgent issue facing Africa: disease.

A recent United Nations report declared that diseases such as AIDS are the primary threat to the future of the people of the African continent -- particularly its children. The report went on to describe the effect of the disease on children and the implications for the future of children of every age living throughout much of Africa.

The report contains dire predictions for Africa, where experts say the impact, present and future, of millions of children orphaned by AIDS and abandoned is virtually destroying the continent. According to the study, Africa has been overwhelmed by children whose parents have died from diseases such as AIDS -- some estimates are now as high as 16 million. The epidemic has yet to peak, and the numbers are expected to continue to grow. In Zambia alone, more than 360,000 children -- one in 10 of the total population -- have lost either their mother or both parents to disease.

"We have known for quite a while that the situation is deteriorating," explains Fr. Richard Roy, director of the Missionaries of Africa's Washington, DC office. "That's why we appeal for funds for children so often."

"In some areas," Fr. Roy continued, "more children have been orphaned from disease than if their country had been at war for 10 years or so. Instead of bombs and bullets claiming the lives of millions of parents -- disease and malnutrition are killing them. Now we're seeing the result: millions and millions of children who are at risk of dying because they have no one to care for them. If we don't reach out to these men, women and especially the children, the future of Africa will be more horrible than any of us could ever imagine. I am praying that we Americans will understand how much these poor children need our help. They simply have no where else to turn!"

For 16 million children: An uncertain future

As the number of orphans increases, so does a sence of hopelessness

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA - Nearly 28 million children in Africa will have lost at least one of their parents to disease by the year 2010, causing a social nightmare for these countries for decades to come, according to a recent U.S. government report. "The epidemic is producing orphans on a scale unrivaled in history," the report stated.

Only a few years ago, some experts were forecasting that the number of orphaned children living in Africa would not reach 20 million before the end of this decade. Now, they know those predictions were grossly underestimated.

Currently, there are nearly 16 million children who have lost at least one parent to disease. About 90 percent of these children are in sub-Saharan Africa. By 2010, about one in three children in Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and South Africa will have lost a parent, most of them to diseases such as AIDS.

Famine, wars and other disease outbreaks often cause a large increase in orphans, but those are temporary situations that quickly end, the report continued. AIDS will continue to create millions of new orphans for decades. The orphans will put an incredible strain on families, communities and government resources, the report continued.

"Children whose parents become ill often leave school because they are forced to care for them or get a job to support the family," the report explained. "As important as the loss of education and economic security is the loss of a loving environment, where children will be cuddled and care for," one expert noted. "There is a cost and we don't know how to measure it," he said. "The strain these children endure, watching their parents die and then forced to forage for themselves, could create a generation of horribly disaffected people."

"As the number of orphans increases," explained Missionaries of Africa development office director, Fr. Richard Roy, "an incredible sense of hopelessness builds as well. In so many ways, their future -- indeed the future of the entire African continent -- may be in our hands . . . those of us who will reach out to help these suffering children." This fall, the Missionaries of Africa will continue to accept donations for the relief of orphaned African children.

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