The number of AIDS orphans in Africa is ever increasing in Africa. This situation is fueled by a number of factors but AIDS appears to top the list. Once an African pride, the extended family, is now itself strained and cannot sustain the economic and social burden of orphaned children. Every family is infact affected by HIV/AIDS and children are the hardest hit. They still need care from parents or any elder, especially those from their families, however all these people are taken away from them by the epidemic.
Without their parents or the protection of their relatives, these African children are left vulnerable to abuse, rape, slavery, prostitution and other crimes. They may find themselves living on the streets, or in drainage pipes and the luckier ones, in orphanages.
Adoption is one of ways that can save the lives of these Africa orphans. As the number of orphaned children increases in Africa, and it becomes increasingly clear that local families, communities and governments are struggling to care for them, there is a need to get assistance from everywhere and through all means available. Through adoption, there is some guarantee that orphaned children can grow up with the care and love any other child should have. Adoption can give the child access to things he/she would not have had had he/she been living on the streets.
Adoptable children who are orphans are all over the continent, though in some countries, certain policies and laws still have to be passed to make adoption practical and safe for both the child and the potential parents. Apart from orphans, there are other adoptable children in Africa. These include children who are vulnerable, but not orphaned, children whose parents are not in a position to care for them due to poverty or illness. The parents may be sickly, needing attention and care themselves, or they may simply have nothing to share with their children. With the nearly two decades-long drought, hunger and other situations make living simply unbearable for many Africans in the sub-Saharan region. With an increased inflation rate added, many Africans now live on much less than one dollar per day. It becomes very hard for the people to still afford to feed their families and pay for their children’s school fess. The children may be hungry or have never been to school and hence they are vulnerable. Help, suchas adoption, is needed.
Those orphans of AIDS in Africa living in half-way homes or orphanages can be adopted. They are there because of different reasons but they still need a home and family. Some of them live in half-way homes or orphanages because they are waiting for people to give them a brighter future with all the opportunities they deserve. They are waiting for a family to believe in them.
African children who live on the streets are also in need of love and families but it may be hard to adopt them in other countries. People who try to adopt street children are often referred by government welfare officials to places like orphanages or hospitals. This is due to the fact that there is no documented or known information with regards to the background of these street children and adopting them may prove a complication later on, for instance when their parents or relatives show up looking for them.
