“Zambia
has a 98% unemployment rate; people are sick, depressed,
homeless, poverty stricken and are full of apathy. Therefore
fighting HIV/AIDS is even a greater challenge. Zambia
has one million HIV/AIDS orphans who have felt the brunt
of the epidemic in the country. Not only do they go through
the horror of seeing their parents devoured by AIDS, but
the night mare continues as they find that there is no
one to look after them and they are out on the street
alone hungry, sick, with no one to turn to. The psychological
welfare of the children is completely damaged. The children
do not know love, care or compassion, they have endured
so much if nothing is done to reverse this, and these
children will grow up hardened criminals, law unto them
selves and will not have any meaning of what love or care
is. Definitely they do not know what the Zambian traditions
and culture are, and when they do have their own children,
they will not have any values, morals, tradition and culture
to impart to their children, eventually what Zambia is
will die away.
Traditionally Zambia had no orphans, and there was a great
belief in extended family, but the fast rate that AIDS
is killing people in Zambia, coupled with a non viable
economy has lead to 98% unemployment rate and severe extreme
poverty leading to Zambian families to turn a blind eye
to the one million HIV orphans. And hence the tragedy
that is Zambia today. The Zambian Government does not
have a program in place to help the one million HIV/AIDS
orphans; the few NGOs that are in place only manage to
take care of a few hundred orphans.
The catastrophe in Zambia is beyond belief, but it is
a reality and even now only a few thousands of people
have accesses to retroviral drugs. To fight HIV in Zambia
is more challenging than in most instances because of
the poverty that has lead to young girls turning to ‘sugar
daddies’ for financial support. Because of the extreme
poverty, society has turned a blind eye to this onslaught
of HIV infected men on young girls ages 13- 19. The number
of HIV infections is highest in these young women. Zambia
needs aggressive renewed efforts to fight HIV and Poverty.
*Because of the poverty all professionals have fled the
country including the essential ones Registered Nurses,
Doctors, and other medical auxiliary staff, making the
fight of HIV/AIDS and poverty almost an impossible one.
The whole country must be engaged into rebuilding and
building homes, hospitals, long term care facilities,
schools, please remember there is 98% unemployment rate,
the emphasis is organizing all these people and teach
them that only we Zambian can make our country into a
HIV and poverty free society. In short we do have the
labor; all we need is organization, accountability, resources
and dedication”
Nsamwa
Lungu
President and CEO
SaZaFFo
www.savezambiasfuture.org
Demographic
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