RESUMO
PIP: Africa continues to be the continent that has the most HIV-infected people, with about 7.5 million HIV-positive cases at the end of 1992. In many regions 20-40% of pregnant women were found infected at maternal health centers. It is estimated that 5% of the population of Africa is comprised of children who have lost their mother or both parents. The World Health Organization has estimated that by the year 2000 up to 9 million children will be orphans. The African extended family has always been active in the care of children, particularly the grandparents, who have experience and take in grandchildren during the weaning period. The African extended family assures that the survivors are helped in a crisis situation. The social transformation, urbanization, and migration for employment in the last decades have diminished the social significance of the extended family, especially in cities, where traditions rapidly disappear. The AIDS epidemic has decimated the productive population, spreading fear coupled with ignorance about its routes of infection, and led to a situation where almost all such children are left without care in the worst affected areas. These children, abandoned at a young age, are very vulnerable psychologically, physically, and socially. Many such children have been abused sexually, and other turn to crime in groups. Organizations like Save the Children, the Red Cross, and various churches have organized help programs for orphans. In the Kagera region of Tanzania, which is one of the most afflicted areas, the Lutheran Church has initiated an aid program for children to make sure that every children has a place to live and is provided with clothes and meals, medical care, and schooling. If not all of these orphans find the opportunity to grow up in such a safe milieu, there is a high risk that their fate will be the same as that of their parents.^ieng
