Africa AIDS Situation Desperate says UN as Orphans Forced into Prostitution

During the recent UN meeting, Secretary General Kofi Annan warned of the vast spread of HIV/AIDS all over the world and called for strong leadership and more funds to fight the deadly disease.

Annan described the progress as "significant but insufficient."

Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria outlined the financial needs that need to be substantially increased so that projects on prevention, testing, treatment and care for HIV/AIDS orphans may work properly.

The most affected area in the world is Africa, where an alarming number of children are losing their parents to HIV/AIDS. According to the survey, by 2010 there will be 40 million orphaned children whose parents died of AIDS, 95% coming from sub-Saharan Africa.

In the current situation, there are 12 million children orphaned in sub-Saharan Africa because of HIV/AIDS and are being exposed to the deadly disease themselves. As the recent UNICEF study revealed, orphaned girls are three times more likely to become infected than girls whose parents are alive.

Many orphaned girls are forced to work as prostitutes by relatives to make their living, a recent survey found.

"AIDS is reversing the trends that were improving for girls," said Margie de Monchy, regional child protection officer for the United Nations Children's Fund. "We really have to look at the kinds of lousy choices - and sometimes no choices - that they have for survival."

"Orphaned girls are at the absolute margins," said James Elder, UNICEF’s spokesman in Zimbabwe. "They are the very bottom of the barrel. They are much more likely to engage in risky behaviour just to survive."

As the meeting of G8 leaders approaches, a new aid plan for Africa has been proposed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Ahead of the summit, he has been meeting leaders to gain support for his G8 agenda. The next meeting is scheduled on Monday with U.S. President George Bush in Washington, D.C.

However, as recently reported, President Bush has expressed his opposition to new plan, but during a meeting with South African President Thabo Mbeki he promised to help Africa.

The situation in Africa attracts a lot of broad international public attention these days. However, there are many Christian organisations and charities already providing help and meeting the needs of African people, despite huge shortcomings in funding.

Doug Peterson, leading Teen Missions International in Zambia said: "Meeting the spiritual need is the key. We do want to give the orphans a hope for the future. We share with them the claims of Jesus Christ."

"We have Bible studies, we have camps to nurture them and disciple them in this relationship that they've discovered. And it really begins to make a difference in their lives, and the hope that we were stating that was missing many times begins to grow from that point."

Change in their lives brought by new hope is impacting the community and many of the orphans are challenged to make a difference for Christ.

Doug Peterson describes: "It's exciting to see that they have a hope and a desire for the future and to serve the Lord with their lives and to see the Lord change what was such a big problem in Zambia, and actually there's a hope and an answer."