4.1 Children and aids in africa

Interpress: 1/7/1997 9http/pangaea.org)

Assignments:

1. Study the SIX sources provided above. List possible correspondences and differences among the subjects dealt with by these sources.

2. Study sources A to C. What is the effect of Aids on children in Africa?

3. Study Sources D to F. Which aspects of the South African Constitution (Source C) are not met in using child soldiers in Sierra Leone (Sources E and F)?

4. Consider Sources E and F once more. Do you think the use of child soldiers can be justified in any war? Provide reasons for your answer.

Activity 2:

Aids in africa

[lo 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 2.3]

The learner will be able to apply research skills , demonstrate knowledge and understanding of history by making use of correspondences and differences, cause and effect and chronology: AIDS AND AFRICA

SOURCE A:

COMBINED UNAIDS/WHO PRESS RELEASE

Impact Of Aids Worsens Famine In Africa

Epidemic spreads rapidly in New Areas in the World,

According to New Report

In spite of Success with Prevention, Global Action

Remains Under-funded

London, 26 November 2002 — The HIV/AIDS epidemic is aggravating an increasingly deadly famine in Southern Africa, according to a new report "AIDS Epidemic - New Information 2002". Present information regarding the global HIV/AIDS epidemic was released today by the Combined UN Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in commemoration of the World Aids Day on 1 December 2003.

According to the report, the famine in Africa provides a clear example of how the impact of HIV/AIDS also plays a role in other areas of life apart from the loss of life and health-related

costs that are traditionally linked to this illness. More than 14 million people in Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe are coming face to face with famine. These predominantly agricultural communities are also engaged in a struggle with serious AIDS epidemics, with more than five million adults, out of a population of 26 million, living with AIDS. These countries also have a total of 600 000 children under the age of 16 who are infected with HIV/AIDS.

SOURCE B:

Thalyta Swanepoel: Aids: 20 years later.

Twenty-two million people have already died on account of Aids … and 36 million are HIV positive, more than half of them in Africa south of the Sahara.

Information obtained from: Die Burger, 15 June 2001

SOURCE C:

AIDS, AFRICA and ASSISTANCE

Tuesday, 18 March 2003

Forty million people world-wide are living with Aids. Thirty million of these are in Africa. Fifty-eight percent of these are women and three million are children under 15 years of age. During 2001, 3,1 million people died as a result of Aids. More than 12 million children have been orphaned as a result of Aids and this number will rise to 30 million by 2010. Aids has been identified as the primary cause of Africa's chronic food shortages and is seen as the number one enemy of the economy. If the current tendency continues, sub-Saharan Africa will experience an economic and social collapse by 2010.