In December 2012, Maimuna Mohammed, the director- partnership and coordination, National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) highlighted in a key note address that at least 2.5million children have been rendered orphans by HIV and AIDS. This she noted, has caused an increase in the population of orphans in the country, hence posing a threat to the socio-economic development of the nation.
It is interesting to know that Nigeria’s HIV prevalence now stands at 4.1 per cent, while more people are infected in the urban than in the rural areas; maybe due to the efforts of rural CBOs, CSOs, NGOs, rural radio campaigns and so on. The director, Maimuna Mohammed also mentioned that “no fewer than 3.6 million Nigerians are currently living with HIV… and that is why we (Nigerians) need to scale up efforts at all levels to reduce the virus to the barest minimum”.
Many organizations have been contributing to this fight at different levels. UNICEF for example has its 4 ‘P’s Strategy which are 1) Primary prevention among young people; 2) Prevention of Mother-to-child Transmission; 3) Paediatric AIDS; and 4) Protection of orphans and vulnerable children. Many NGOs have also been working locally to build capacity in communities for advocacy, and rendering helping hand in prevention, treatment, care and support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) as well as their care giver.
Hence, as the development sector celebrates the world HIV Orphans’ day today, let us all look closer into the growing number of Nigeria’s HIV Orphans and the impact this is having and will have on the socio-economic development and well being of many households (where we have children as head of household dues to parents death) and communities.
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