Protection and support for orphans needs a joint concerted efforts

AS you drive along the 72 Km tarmac road which connect Tarime district and Musoma town in Mara region, immediately on the right hand side of the road, lies a small village called Gamasara. The village is located five kilometers away from Tarime town.
The village which has approximately 600 families in it recently became a victim of the bloody tribal clashes which exists between the two famous Wakurya tribal clans of Wasweta and the Waryenchoka ethnic groups in the district.
Gamasara village is among the most hit villages within Tarime district which has been affected by HIV/AIDS disease, and statistics in the village shows that quite a substantial number of people have died of the pandemic since its outbreak over two decades ago.
Julius Mwikwabe (67) a retired army officer, now engaged in farming activities in the village is lamenting for the frequent deaths caused by HIV/AIDS diseases among youths and middle aged people in the village. For himself, he bitterly laments for he had recently lost a daughter and two sons who died of HIV/AIDS disease five years ago. However, he is now taking care of his grand children.
He said together with the extended family of his own, he manages to take care of his six grand children with the help of his three wives whom he said are energetic enough in farming activities that ultimately enables them earn a living.
However, a horrible look and a sympathetic situation is seen to his immediate neighbour in a compound with three traditional houses whose owner MR. Zakaria Joseph, a 81 year old man entirely blind, is now assisted by his orphaned grandchildren.
Mr. Joseph, who due to his age, is now a bed-ridden and has no more strength to produce a substantial work to make him survive. Inside his hut sits his wife Sabina (71), she looks a little bit energetic enough to support her grandchildren. She is able enough to do some manual work for the family.
Between them they had given birth to nine children eight were now dead and the ninth, alas, was clearly dying. On the floor of the hut, jammed together with barely room to move or breathe, were 12 orphaned children ranging in age from two to sixteen. It is now common place that grandmothers are the caregivers for orphans. "The grandmothers are impoverished, their days are numbered, and the decimation of families is so complete that there’s often no one left in the generation coming up behind. We’re struggling to find a viable means to help the couples and the family”, says Severine Ryoba a village Chairman. He said the village is planning to take the children of the family below 10 years for care to the newly opened Tarime Orphanage Trust centre to relieve them with the burden of taking care of them. Their survival has largely been depending on the help by the sympathizers around.
It is very sympathetic indeed and very sad to narrate, one cannot control tears flowing down their chicks on looking at the isolated children who seems to have used to the environment. But lucky enough the eldest three takes more time calming the young ones when crying as the couples are now helpless.
One of the most devastating aspects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is the growing proportion of children the disease has orphaned. Unlike most diseases, HIV/AIDS generally kills not just one, but both parents. On top of the psychological impact of losing one’s parents, children who lose their parents to AIDS are often stigmatized or ostracized by their communities. These children are often much more at risk of becoming a victim of violence, exploitative child labour, discrimination or other abuses. What is more, the stigmatization and discrimination that people affected with HIV often live with is passed onto their children, making their fight for survival that much more precarious. Surviving children face malnutrition, illness, physical and psychosocial trauma, and impaired cognitive and emotional development. Unaccompanied girls are at especially high risk of sexual abuse. And because of all this, they too are very likely to become HIV-positive. When parents or caregivers fall sick and die, children are orphaned and a child’s life often falls apart. The entire family feels the economic impact in the sense that the majority of the children becomes street children. Other impacts are related to school dropouts, the attitude which later drives them to child labour extremes, and for girls are vulnerable to sexual abuse in domestic housework because of the stigma attached to their orphaned status. Studies from numerous regions in the country have shown that orphaned children have substantially lower levels of education than children who are not orphaned. But extended families traditionally steps in to take care of these children. 14 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa region under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. By 2010, this number is expected to exceed to 25 million. Without urgent and a collective action, millions more children will face enormous risks in their struggle to stay alive. Tanzania is among the Sub-Saharan countries in Africa which has been affected by the scourge. Statistics by the government through the Ministry of Health and Social services estimates that there are about 2.5 million orphans in the country whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS disease.