Mozambique Struggling to Feed Growing Number of AIDS Orphans

The plight of AIDS orphans has been a theme at two separate AIDS conferences underway this week in Mozambique. One meeting, organized by Metropolitan, a South African financial services company, seeks to encourage public-private sector partnerships. The other is considering ways to mitigate HIV's effects on regional food production.

Battling food shortages and overwhelmed by HIV, the government lacks the means to feed the growing number of AIDS orphans. About 1.7 million of Mozambique's 17 million people are infected with HIV, and some 400,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS.

Extended families have traditionally cared for orphans in Mozambique. But given the effects of AIDS and drought, many families are unable to care for their own children, let alone others. The cash-strapped government relies on international aid from the World Food Program and UNICEF to feed its orphans, but officials say they do not even have the means to determine how many children need help. By 2010, UNICEF predicts the country will be home to 1.2 million orphans, 926,000 the result of AIDS. "If we do not stem the tide now, it will be nearly impossible to feed these children in the future," said Atieno Odenyo, a UNICEF officer in Maputo.

Natalie Simione runs Liberdade ("Freedom" in Portuguese), where children receive three nutritious meals a day. Thirty-five children, most of them AIDS orphans, share five bedrooms. Simione said her group would not be able to keep going without the help of WFP and other aid agencies. "We are barely surviving from day to day with food aid to keep our children healthy," Simione said. "We can't save them all, but we will do our best with the ones we reach."

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