[Press Kit]

16

the streets. In 1991 in Lusaka, the capital, some 35,000 children were living
on the streets. Today that number has
more than doubled to around 75,000.
Many of these children are sexually
exploited; half are orphans.
The crisis is eroding the Government's ability to provide services,
while at the same time increasing the
demand for them. Zambia's primary
health care system used to be considered one of the best administered and
most decentralized among all African
countries, but now, with increasing
household poverty, external debt
obligations, and demands placed on
health services by HIV/AIDS, the

The AIDS crisis is eroding
the Government's ability to
provide basic services, while
at the same time increasing
the demand for them.
A woman very sick with AIDS
is visited by an NGO health
worker in Lusaka, Zambia.

system is breaking down. In 1992,
HIV/AIDS-related illness accounted
for about 30 per cent of hospital beds
and 43 per cent of in-patient days, in
those hospitals surveyed.
AIDS has made the whole country
poorer. All sectors of the Zambian
economy have felt the deep ravages of
the epidemic. One large company
reported in 1995 that its costs from
HIV/AIDS illness and death exceeded
its total profits for the year.
NGOs trying to fill the gap
Zambia has several policies that pertain
to children, but no national orphan
policy. Although many ministries have
included AIDS issues in their planning,
the Government has been slow to
respond to the AIDS orphan crisis.
The Permanent Secretaries from the
Ministries of Health, Education, Social
Services and Children have formed a
task force to look at the problem of
orphans and vulnerable children with
the goal of establishing a national
coordinating body.
As in many countries, NGOs,
CBOs and religious institutions have
tried to fill the gaps. In the last few
years, the number of groups dealing
with AIDS issues - previously fairly
low - has grown. Most of these organizations recognize that orphaned
children should be cared for by the
community rather than by institutions and as a result, much of their
work focuses on strengthening
families and extended families.

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