The already grim global orphan crisis is growing far worse as more parents die from AIDS, according to a new report from The United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

Finding areas in Africa and Asia to be the most impacted, the report, Children on the Brink, calls for action at all levels to assist children, families and communities affected.

Scope of the Orphan Crisis: According to the report, more than 13.4 million children have lost one or both parents to the AIDS epidemic in the three regions studied, a number that will increase to 25 million by 2010. 

In 2001, a total of 34 million children in sub-Saharan Africa were orphans, one-third of them due to AIDS. By 2010, the total number of orphans in the region will top 42 million. Twenty million of these children - or almost 6 percent of all children in Africa -will be orphaned due to AIDS.

Due to its massive population, the total number of orphans in ASIA is much larger than in Africa. In 2001, there were 65 million orphans in Asia, with approximately 2 million of them orphaned due to AIDS. The number of people in many of the largest Asian nations with HIV/AIDS threatens to surpass the numbers in some of the most severely affected African countries. Even a small increase in the prevalence of AIDS in these countries would lead to even more orphans.

In 2001, just 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 70 percent of the orphans. Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo had the largest orphan populations, with smaller countries feeling the impact of AIDS even more acutely.

The report projects a continued rise in the number of orphans, with the prevalence rate of AIDS largely determining the geographic pattern of orphaning over the next decade. In countries where HIV/AIDS prevalence has recently escalated, the report concludes that the full impact on the estimated number of orphans has yet to emerge.

Five Key Strategies of Response: Noting that AIDS had "created an orphan crisis," Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS stated, "This unprecedented crisis will require radically scaled-up national, regional and community responses in the decades to come." Children on the Brink discusses five key strategies to assist children affected by AIDS:

• Strengthen and support the capacity of families to protect and care for their children.
• Mobilize and strengthen community-based responses.
• Strengthen the capacity of children and young people to meet their own needs. 
• Ensure that governments develop appropriate policies, including legal and programmatic frameworks, as well as essential services for the most vulnerable children.
• Where HIV pre- Raise awareness within societies to create an environment that enables support for children affected by HIV/AIDS.

"We must respond to these devastating statistics by addressing the needs and rights of both orphans and vulnerable children whose parents are still living," said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. "Countries that have high rates of orphaning due to AIDS also have high levels of children seriously impacted by the epidemic, such as those with ill parents or living in households that have taken in orphans. They are often just as vulnerable."

U.S. Leads in Funding Response: As the world leader in funding the fight against the worldwide HIV/AIDS pandemic, USAID has provided over $2.3 billion for prevention, care and treatment programs in over 50 countries since 1986.

With a current budget of $510 million, a 400 percent increase since 1999, USAID will assist more than 50 countries with HIV/AIDS programs this year alone. In return for this funding, USAID claims to have "demonstrated a proven record of accomplishment in preventing new HIV infections, providing care and treatment, and addressing the needs of children and families affected by AIDS." [Also see: USAID Combating HIV/AIDS: A Record of Accomplishment]

Goals of U.S. Foreign Aid: Often criticized by groups dedicated to reducing government spending, U.S. foreign aid programs have two main goals:

• Furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets, and
• improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world.

Defenders of the programs point out that total spending for foreign assistance represents less than one-half of 1 percent of the annual federal budget.