In parts of northern
Nigeria, health workers say more orphans are spilling into the country's
dilapidated care system because of an increase in poverty, violence and
HIV/AIDS. But some caregivers say they are trying to build a so-called
"mega-orphanage" to help alleviate the problem.
Favor, a baby girl, is
HIV-positive. About four months ago a little girl searching for food or
valuables in the trash found her in a garbage can as a newborn. Favor later
died.
It is increasingly
common for babies to be found abandoned in her city, said Adama Sambo, a leader
of Women Living With HIV/AIDS in Kaduna State.
“Some of them, they
throw it in the dustbin. Children will go to the dustbin and find the baby is
crying and definitely they will call [out]: ‘Baby is crying. Baby is
crying,’” she said.
HIV positive babies are
particularly likely to be cast aside by parents because of the stigma
associated with the disease, said Sambo. Some mothers abandon their babies at
the hospital when they find he or she is HIV positive
The babies that find their way to the few
homes that take in abandoned HIV-positive children are often left untreated
because doctors do not have enough anti-retroviral drugs. Often orphaned
HIV patients are given anti-malaria drugs, which do not help, she said.
“I am still crying for
the world, the whole world, that we should try and get anti-viral drugs for the
babies so that we not be losing the babies," Sambo said. "There may
be something tomorrow.”
Officials say HIV rates
in Kaduna State are considerably higher than Nigeria's national average of
about four percent, with some areas more than doubling that number. Orphanage
workers say taking in an HIV-positive child costs 10 times as much as taking in
a healthy child.
Hajia Maryam Ahmed, who
heads an orphanage called Mother Care, said it is not just HIV rates that are
increasing the number of orphans in Kaduna. Poverty has increased
dramatically in recent years and more young women are hawking goods, like nuts
or soup on the streets. These teenagers are vulnerable to rape, and are
more likely to give up their babies than adult mothers.
Sectarian and religious
violence has also killed scores of parents in the past year. The stigma
attached to orphaned children leaves many outcast, said Ahmed, while others are
kidnapped from orphanages by people claiming to be adoptive parents. Like
most orphanages in Kaduna, hers has halted adoptions to protect children from
predators posing as parents, leaving more children that need care. But however
broken and overridden the orphanage system is now, she said, some children are
making it.
Like five-year-old
Jessica at FaithWorks, a Christian orphanage.
“I like this orphanage
because it is a place where God saves people," said Jessica. "I learn
in school about how to speak good English and education.”
A FaithWorks
spokesperson, Andy Njoko, says his organization envisions building a large
orphanage to raise children that are educated, healthy and unaffected by
stigma.
“The orphanage is
actually going to be a very big one," Njoko said. "Of course it is
going to have a school, it is going to have a lot of facilities that should be
able to cater for over 2,000 children.”
They have the land set
aside for the new facility, he said, but they are still recruiting donors to
pay for construction.
Sources :
http://www.voanews.com/content/orphans-strain-healthcare-in-northern-nigeria/1637807.html
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