Marafiki AIDS Orphans

Of all the countries affected by AIDS, Kenya has been hardest hit. It is estimated that over 1 million adults and children have developed AIDS in Kenya. South of the Sahara, more than 1million children are orphaned, while more than 25 million people currently are living with the virus, and more than 15 million have died. During 2002 alone, more than 2.4 million adults and children died of AIDS in sub-Sahara Africa.

These numbers will increase as the epidemic develops. Estimates suggest that the number of children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Sahara Africa will increase drastically in the next five years, leaving the area Marafiki means
“friends” in Swahili

socially and economically crippled. In Kenya, about 50 percent of those infected with HIV are infected before they reach 33, developing AIDS and dying before they reach 35. They leave a generation of children with no adult relatives to raise them.

Everyday:

• An estimated 35 Kenyan adults contract the HIV/AIDS virus

• 700 Kenyan adults die of AIDS related complications

• 1,600 Kenyan children are potentially infected with HIV

As a direct result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the streets of Nairobi are full of orphaned toddlers and adolescents fighting a daily battle of survival. Public school is not free in Kenya. Therefore, many of these children are out of school and experiencing helpless and hopeless conditions. This desperate situation is what caused Marafiki to concentrate our efforts in Kenya.

For more about the effects of AIDS/HIV in Kenya, visit:
www.avert.org www.apathyislethal.org