Millions of disabled, refugees, displaced, orphans and other severely under-privileged agonize day after day in precarious conditions in the slums and the streets of Africa. These are the victims of accidents, diseases, famine and malnutrition, civil strife and natural calamities. They include blind, deaf, dumb, crippled and street children. Most are excluded from schools or work and condemned to a life of abject poverty. They are often seen as economic burdens. Families are either unable or unwilling to provide them with the care they need for a normal life. They are simply seen as another mouth to feed. They have no qualification whatsoever for employment and lack awareness on how to improve their situation. They have lost all their dignity and hope for a better life.
Rehabilitation of the Disabled
There are nearly 80 million people living with disabilities in Africa. Some see the plight of these under-privileged people as a curse or the retribution for their past sin. They suffer from strong discrimination and become outcast. They have no legal protection. There is no special provision that fits their conditions. For example, streets, buildings and common infrastructure are not designed to be handicapped-friendly. Therefore, the disabled have little or no access to schooling or employment. Overall, an outcast disabled person has no more choice than to become a street beggar.
Mustafa, a hungry disabled nomad child in Mali (Mali's hungry nomads: BBC) Mustufa is 10. He cannot walk or even move by himsel
Rehabilitation of Victims of HIV/AIDS
Though Africa accounts for only 10 per cent of the world human population, it is home for 80 percent of all HIV/AIDS casualties in the world.
- Nearly 28 million Africans live with HIV/AIDS.
- Each year, 2 million of HIV/AIDS victims die in Africa.
- Each year, 3 million more people are infected in Africa.
- The spread of Aids means an increase in tuberculosis cases.
- African AIDS patient afflicted by tuberculosis.
- Of all the children infested with AIDS virus in the world, 80 percent are found in Africa.
- Of all the HIV/AIDS – related orphans in the world, 95 percent are in Africa.
- HIV/AIDS has orphaned 12 million children in Africa.
- At the current rate, the number of African HIV/AIDS orphan children will double by 2010.
- Because orphanages are very few in Africa, the above orphans are often forsaken to a life of excruciating suffering. They are seen as economic burdens to their extended families. They sleep in the streets and turn to begging, stealing, and scavenging for food. Many of them are sold and forced into sex trade. Many others resort to prostitution in exchange for a meal and/or clothing.
- HIV/AIDS is decimating the social and economic structure of Africa by, among others, causing havoc in agriculture, the backbone of the region’s economy. It kills or disables millions of young and middle aged men and women in the rural areas, depletes agriculture of its labor force and plunges the sector in a shambles.
- Today, many organizations are working to end HIV/AIDS’ devastating effects on the people of Africa. However, the work to be done and the victims continue to outpace the available resources, which makes the challenge to decrease the suffering and save life is increasingly more overarching than before.
A Nigerian AIDS Patient (Source :Yahoo page 1)
Street Children and Beggars
Children make up half of the population of Africa. AIDS has orphaned 12 million of them. And at the current rate, this number will double by the year 2010. Many AIDS orphans and other severely under-privileged children end up on the streets, as there are very few orphanages or social programs for them. Their extended families are already heavily burdened and poverty stricken. They live in gutters and alleys. They beg, steal or scavenge for food. They sniff glue to escape reality and turn to prostitution in exchange for a meal or clothing. These employment and training programs will help adults learn basic skills and become productive members of their community. Its health insurance programs for the under-privileged will help sustain their productive life.
Dawit 12 years old live in underground, Ethiopia, Text and pictures: Will Connor and Mesay Berhanu. (Source: Google )
Rehabilitation of Commercial Sex Workers
Commercial sex workers are defined as women who hire out their body for sexual intercourse. The major cause of this line of work is lack of employment opportunities and stable family life, which drive many women to choose this business as the last resort for survival. Certainly, most women don’t like prostitution, not only because it exposes them to various sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, but because it also cause them to be looked down on and despised by the society.
Most prostitutes in Africa have their origin in the rural areas. Because of poverty, they eventually migrate to nearby towns and cities in search for menial jobs through which they would secure a better living. However, when they fail to secure such jobs, most of them resort to prostitution or begging for survival. This lamentable situation, coupled with the ever-increasing number of female school dropouts, has boosted the number of prostitutes in Africa.
About 1.8 million women prostitutes are in Africa. This is certainly an under-estimation as sexuality, in African societies, is a very private matter, not displayed or discussed in public and that prostitutes are not easily counted for that matter.
Another form of sex exploitation that is now afflicting Africa is child prostitution. Children as young as six years old have entered into the sex trade, either from kidnapping, abandonment, or having been sold by their extended family. Destitute orphans are sometimes taken in by their relatives, and then sold into prostitution to earn money for the family. It is impossible to pinpoint the number children being forced into prostitution across Africa, but with over 12 million AIDS orphans on the continent, this number is expected to be substantial.
Prostitutes on the streets of Abidjan, CI They are called them serpents because of the hissing sound they make to hail down men driving or walking by.
Child prostitution
Poverty and employment mentioned earlier are not the only causes of prostitution. War and HIV/AIDS also are. In particular, HIV/AIDS is both the consequences and one of the main causes of prostitution. Many children orphaned by this pandemic enter prostitution as their only means of survival. Moreover, some African men who are infected with HIV/AIDS seek out child prostitutes because they believe that having sex with a child will cure them of the disease. Conversely, men who are not infected with the disease seek to have sex with a child because they believe that children are too young to be infected.
Women and children who entered prostitution either by force or through the dusty roads of poverty and who have endured related suffering can be rehabilitated. Your monetary support will help establish counseling centers, educational initiatives, work-training centers and job opportunity initiatives for them. Contact CHFI today and know how you can help to give hope and self-reliance to the millions of these under-privileged women and children.
