The AIDS crisis and orphan care in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The paper observes that the AIDS crisis in Zimbabwe has resulted in an unprecedentedly huge increase in th e number of orphans. The magnitude of the problem of orphans warrants going beyond conventional responses to the care and protection of orphans. The paper, therefore discusses these conventional responses and a new initiative, namely the community-based orphan care programme. The paper also observes that, although the community-based care programme has been fairly successful in the few districts where it has been introduced, the general state of poverty is undemlining the effectiveness of the programme.