The Food Crisis: Implications for AIDS Orphans
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Food riots have now occurred in nine countries. Experts are at a loss as to how deep the wound from rising food prices will be and what this crisis will mean for economic, social and political stability in the developing world.
What is clear and predicable is that this crisis will have horrific consequences for the most vulnerable and marginalized. Children, especially those who have been orphans by AIDS, could suffer the most.
Today, more than 15 million children have been orphaned by AIDS. 12.1 million AIDS orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa. For these children, the loss of a parent means less food on the table. According to FAO, food consumption has been found to drop 40% in homes affected by HIV and AIDS. Households affected by HIV and AIDS often struggle to tend their gardens or make enough money to purchase food at the market. The implications are serious: malnutrition, limited physical and mental development, and even starvation. Visit www.worldaidsorphans.org to learn more.
The food crisis underscores the importance of reauthorizing and fully funding PEPFAR, and keeping our promise to support the children affected by AIDS.
Programs supporting AIDS orphans help to address this food crisis through school feeding programs, support to develop in agricultural skills and knowledge, and assistance on income development for affected households.
Get involved by signing ONE’s petition for the crisis http://www.one.org/hungercrisis and by visiting: www.worldaidsorphans.org.
-Simon Isaacs, World AIDS Orphans Day
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April 28, 2008 at 10:33 am
Thanks for this post — it’s so tragic to think about how people who are already struggling to survive must now cope with rising food prices. For an intimate portrait of one 34-year-old Kenyan who has waged a lifelong battle with poverty, see:
http://www.religionwriter.com/faith-life/catholics/faith-hope-and-poverty-a-story-from-kenya/
April 28, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Once again, thank you Simon for posting this info here in the ONE Blog. It is very much appreciated.
I think sometimes in all our enthusiasm for ONE and our movement to make extreme poverty history, the people that we are advocating for seems to slip from a lot of our memories.
While we gp about our daily lives, there literally are MILLIONS of people suffering & dying from AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa - no less the 12.1 million AIDS orphaned children in Africa.
I must admit that I found out about your activities for these children a little too late this year to have had the time to put together an event locally in my area.
But now that I’m aware of this day and your website, I will continue to keep in contact with your efforts so that next year I will be more than just a bystander and a cyberactivist for World AIDS Orphans Day but an active participant.
I will mention the plight of our world’s AIDS orphans when I speak at our local (Austin TX) observance of the GHC’s Candlelight Memorial Service on 18 May.
It’s the least that I can do.
Take very good care, Simon. Blessings always for all your efforts for “the least of these”.
ALWAYS ONE in the Spirit, debbie
http://www.mpwn-uganda.org