Orphans of AIDS

By Simon Robinson/Harare

Esther Daiton begins her day early--vomiting bile into the toilet outside her Harare shack at 4:30, just before the sun rises. Esther's father Daiton Malinga died of AIDS in April 1997. Her mother Nelia Nefitara died of AIDS in January 1998. Esther's eldest sister, Napiri, died in 1993. The next eldest sister, Martha, died in 1995. Esther is the third sister. She discovered she was HIV-positive only after the birth of her daughter Emmaculate, who was chronically sick and died in 1998, age two. The fifth sister, Elina, died of AIDS last year; the sixth, Maria, in May. Esther, 26, takes care of 11 other AIDS orphans in her family, from her brother James, 17, to her niece Manyara, 9, who is HIV-positive. Esther worries about who will take care of these children when she dies.

Africa is filled with fatherless, motherless families like the Daitons. Last week the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and UNICEF released the first detailed count of the number of children left orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa: 10 million and rising. In some countries, 10% of children under 15 have been orphaned by AIDS. There may be 30 million more by 2010.

The report's chronicle of the life these children lead reads like the bleakest fiction. They are ostracized by their communities. Some children interviewed in Harare--their words appear on the opposite page--insisted on using pseudonyms. They have no way to earn money and live in fear that they have the disease themselves. Many do. Young orphan girls often turn to sex to survive and end up catching the virus. A South African study found that 9.5% of pregnant girls under age 15 were HIV-infected. And there is virtually no money to help. A recent UNAIDS study found that the disease is spreading three times as fast as the resources to combat it. And while the children on these pages have needs that can be met with money, most told TIME of a want no money can buy--family.

If you want to help, you can contribute to UNICEF at 333 E. 38th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017 or via its website at unicef.org