• Education and Counselling

• Accommodation and Healthcare

Children who have lost one or both parents need a lot of support. They have to deal with grief as well as survival. Most orphaned children are supported by relatives, who are usually older women and are often unemployed. The family will become poorer and will need food and financial support.

A large number of orphans stay on alone in the family home when their parents die. Most ill children are too small to care for themselves in any way. Older children look after young ones and try to find ways to survive. Thousands of children live in desperate poverty in these child-headed homes. Many of them drop out of school and some turn to sex work or crime to survive.

Orphaned children, particularly those living with HIV/AIDS have special needs that are different from those of adults. They are not able to get access to help themselves in the any way. Usually they depend on caregiver. If they are very young, they will not understand the disease and the steps they have to take to stay healthy and to protect other people.

It is best for children to be looked after by people who care and make them feel safe. They need care and support of a trained person to make sure they receive proper care.

An orphaned child is likely to have another family member who is also infected - meaning that the child can also suffer from the stigma and the financial hardships associated with having someone in the family who has passed away. Ultimately, the child may experience the grief and emotional suffering of losing a parent or relatives.

Orphaned children remain the most intractable of all issues related to care and support. The increase in adult deaths in Uganda means that the numbers of children orphaned each day is growing exponentially. We are all struggling to find a viable response; in the meantime, millions of children live traumatized, unstable lives, robbed not just of their parents, but of their childhoods and futures. There are simply not enough adults left to do the care-giving – no one to hand down knowledge or experience or, more importantly, values from one generation to another. The need to find them shelter is of paramount importance.

Counseling and support for children can considerably improve their quality of life, relieve suffering and assist in the practical management of illness. Emotional and practical support is crucial to for all children who are directly orphaned. Such care might include health advice; help with shelter and material needs, educational support, etc. It involves the community, the school, social workers, counselors, nurses, doctors and teachers.

It is clear that more needs to be done, especially in resource-poor Uganda. Many children are dying, whilst many more are experiencing the scars that losing a parent or relative can leave in their lives - almost all of which is avoidable.

This is where these children need your support. Please contribute generously to this cause.