As a direct consequence of the AIDS epidemic, villages across Malawi have lost their most productive members - adults between the ages of 15-49. This has a devastating economic and social impact as villages lose teachers, farmers, and fishermen who are the mothers and fathers of large families. The AIDS orphans who are left behind live on society's margins, most often cared for by grandmothers who struggle to provide for them. The children are vulnerable to exploitation, malnutrition, and disease.

Households in Malawi are struggling to care for orphaned children. In a country where the average annual income is a meager $180 per year, few relatives are capable of supporting so many dependent children. The poverty that is endemic in Malawian villages puts orphans at risk for differential treatment and even neglect as guardians may have to choose between feeding their own children and feeding orphans.

GAIA's Malawi Staff created the Orphan Care program to support vulnerable orphans and their overburdened family members, making it possible for grandparents, aunts and uncles to care for them. This program is keeping families intact, preventing neglect and halting the growth of more orphan-headed households.

Through the Orphan Care program, Caregivers identify and register AIDS orphans living in rural villages. Caregivers regularly distribute Orphan Care Kits, which include food, vitamins, blankets, soap and clothing to children who are registered in the program. The kits also provide orphans with school uniforms and supplies like notebooks and pens making it possible for them to attend primary school. Caregivers visit orphans and their guardians, monitoring each child's health and working with extended family to ease the burden of caring for youth some of whom may be infected with HIV, TB, malaria and other life-threatening illnesses.

An important component of Orphan Care is to ensure that orphans who are at-risk for or already infected with HIV are tested and when necessary receive life-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) medications. When children are at-risk for HIV, Caregivers refer them for HIV testing and counseling. When they are ill, the program provides them with a chaperone and a transportation stipend that makes it possible for them to visit the few hospitals and clinics in Malawi that provide effective pediatric HIV treatment.

Read about ORPHAN EDUCATION >>