AIDS is striking at the heart of families and communities. It is an unprecedented global development challenge which has already caused too much hardship, illness and untimely death. The pandemic affects individuals, devastates households and communities and now threatens entire nations. Tanzania already had long severe AIDS epidemics that is generating orphans so quickly that family structures can no longer cope. As the number of adult deaths is rising now and then, an increasing number of orphans is growing up without parental care and love. The increased spiral of adult deaths means that the number of children orphaned each day is expanding exponentially. Families and communities can barely fend for themselves, leaving behind a generation of children to be raised by their grandparents. The vulnerability of AIDS orphans starts well before the death of a parent. Children living with caregivers often experience many negative changes in their lives and can start to suffer emotional neglect even before the death of the parent or caregiver. In Tanzania, there have been traditional systems in place to take care of children who lose their parents for various reasons. But the onslaught of HIV slowly but surely erodes this good traditional practice by simply overloading its caring capacity by the sheer number of orphaned children needing support and care. A larger proportion of orphans in the country have lost their parents to AIDS than to any other cause of death - meaning that, were it not for the AIDS epidemic, these children would not have been orphaned. The government estimates that there are about 2.5 millions of them here in Tanzania. The economic impact of HIV/AIDS illness and death has serious consequences for an orphan's access to basic necessities such as shelter, food, clothing, health and education. Orphans run greater risks of being malnourished than children who have parents to look after them. In addition there is the emotional suffering of the children which usually begins with their parents' distress and progressive illness. Eventually, the children suffer the death of their parent(s) and the emotional trauma that results. They then may have to adjust to a new situation, with little or no support, and they may suffer exploitation and abuse.
The distress and social isolation experienced by these children, both before and after the death of their parent(s), is strongly exacerbated by the shame, fear, and rejection that often surrounds people affected by HIV/AIDS. Because of this stigma and often-irrational fear surrounding AIDS, children may be denied access to schooling and health care. And once a parent dies, children may also be denied their inheritance and property. The only way forward is prevention and care. Preventing more adults from becoming infected with HIV in the future, and providing treatment and care, will prevent even more children from becoming orphans in the future. In the early days of the AIDS orphan crisis, there was a rush by well meaning non-governmental organizations to build orphanage centres. But this response was unsustainable given the scale of the problem as the cost of maintaining a child in such an institution needs great care. Most people now believe that orphans should be cared for in family units through extended family networks, foster families and adoption, and that siblings should not be separated. But the extended family can only serve as part of the solution to mass orphan hood if adequately supported by the state, community and other sectors. The community needs to be supportive of children when they are orphaned. Orphans need to be accepted as part of the community and to have access to essential services such as health care and education. A variety of different community organizations in the country do now provide support for orphans, and the government does encourage communities to provide care for orphans within the community, and to rely on institutional care only as a last resort. Mapambano Centre for Children’s Rights (MCCR) is a good example of a community organization that is committed to care for orphans and vulnerable children with their basic needs in the country. This is a Non-governmental Organization formed in Mkuranga district in Coast region in 2002. The firm has been in the forefront in assisting orphanage centres with the basic necessities to cater for their daily basic life such as clothing, beddings, food and assistances for medical treatment. According to the firm’s Secretary, Mr. Joseph Onyango since the establishment of the NGO, they have helped more than 1,800 orphans and vulnerable children from various orphanage centres in the country. Mapambano Centre has its branch offices located in Himo-Moshi, Bagamoyo and in Nachingwea. Another community organization is the Youth Disabled Development Fund (YDDF) based in Pugu Kajiungeni on the outskirts of the city of Dar es Salaam. This is an NGO formed in 2003 with the main objective of supporting disabled orphans and vulnerable children According to the Managing Director, Mr. Evans Mwakyusa, his firm provides day care support for disabled orphans and vulnerable children throughout in the country. In recent years, Tanzanian government established a National Orphan Care Task Force. The Task Force is made up of various representatives and organizations which are responsible for planning, monitoring and revising all programmes on orphan care. An important aspect of the government's strategy has been to promote and support community based programmes, and in both rural and urban areas across Tanzania, communities are developing a variety of ways to cope with the growing crisis of AIDS orphans whose parents have died of AIDS disease. In many villages orphan committees have been established to monitor the local situation and to take collective action to assist those in need.
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