Orphaned children in the world

Currently, there are around 170 million orphaned children in the world, which has serious consequences on their rights and their development.

Source

Definition of orphan

An orphan is a child whose father, mother or both parents have passed away.
Of the 132 million orphans living in developing countries, an estimated 13 million have lost both parents.

Factors that increase the existence of orphans
Orphans due to AIDS
One of the main causes of children becoming orphans is the HIV / AIDS epidemic.

A child is orphaned when one of its parents dies because of this virus. The child, in turn, may or may not have contracted the virus.

In 2008, about 430,000 children were infected with the HIV virus. In most cases, the virus was passed from mother to child. This situation could be avoided if there was adequate health care. However, normally, the poorest countries do not have access to medical treatments.

While the spread of AIDS infections continues without control, the number of orphans due to the virus will continue to grow.

Other significant factors

Children can also lose a parent because of natural disasters, hunger and / or war. Likewise, wars also contribute to the displacement of children across borders.

Extreme poverty, diseases, abuse and incest can also break the family nucleus and, as a consequence, children are abandoned.

Key figures

Around 170 million children in the world are orphans.
Around 71 million orphans live in Asia, 59 million in Africa and almost 9 million in Latin America and the Caribbean.
31 million orphans are in India.
In 2007, 15 million orphans were counted due to AIDS. HIV kills a father or mother every 15 seconds.
Consequences of orphanhood
An orphan child is alone in a world of adults. Orphans suffer serious violations of most of their rights:

Nutrition

Orphaned children do not have the means to feed themselves properly.

living place

These children, in general, live without a roof in the streets.

Education

In most cases, the first thing that is sacrificed is education. Orphans must deal not only with their own needs, but also with those of the smallest children in their care.

Health

Rarely are orphans prioritizing their health over food or housing. Their living conditions and daily activities are extremely damaging to their health, due to street fights, drugs, pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, malnutrition, and poor working conditions.

Child labor

Some orphans are looking for work to escape their dire situation, but they are often exploited with degrading and dangerous jobs. The International Labor Organization published that most orphans work in commercial agriculture as street vendors, domestic workers or in the sex industry, more often than other children.

Solutions for the problem of orphanhood

Judicial protection guaranteed by the CRC
In the absence of temporary or permanent family members, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) urged States to provide special assistance and protection to orphaned children.

Article 20 of the CRC contains four guidelines for assisting orphans:

1. House for children
2. Kafala (similar to a permanent host of the child). Since adoption is prohibited by Islamic laws, a family can voluntarily take care of the care, education and protection of the child instead. This system does not create family ties between the family and the orphan.
3. Adoption
4. Location in a suitable children's home

However, many governments do not adequately address the needs of orphaned children.

International adoption
International adoption is another alternative to maintain the proper balance of children in the world. The 1993 Hague Convention laid the foundations for child protection and international cooperation, allowing orphans to be legally hosted by a family.

Many conditions must be met to protect the interests of the child. This transparent process allows to prevent the spread of child trafficking.

However, it is difficult to trust international adoption in many situations, especially when the child has been separated from his own family by war or natural disasters. The main objective, in these cases, is to find the child's family before considering international adoption.

Limit the spread of the AIDS virus
If HIV / AIDS were controlled, the number of orphans in the world would decrease. Prevention and review campaigns are necessary to achieve this goal, as well as to guarantee access to treatment.
The Declaration of Commitment in the fight against HIV / AIDS of 2001, signed by most countries, recognizes that orphans need special care that includes non-discrimination of these children and access to health care, education and housing.

Fight for survival

Each year, 19 million children are not vaccinated or receive the necessary doses of vaccines. Immunization is key to prevent diseases. An unvaccinated child has a high chance of getting measles, pneumonia or tetanus that can be deadly in certain contexts.

Another major danger is the lack of food that causes children to contract diseases that could be easily prevented. Diseases that, for example, cause vomiting and diarrhea, such as Zachariah has suffered in recent months. He and his family are from Ethiopia but had to leave for Somalia. When the drought intensified, the lack of water killed their crops and their animals began to die.

The price of water and food increased in such a way that they became inaccessible to the population. The only way they found out was to emigrate. That's how they got to Somalia. There they are now. They wait for little Zachariah to recover fully before continuing.

From the classrooms

While sufficient food is essential, basic education is no less so. If all students from very low income countries left school with basic reading skills, 171 million people could escape poverty. This would mean a cut of 12% of the world's poverty. The key to progress lies in early childhood education. It is one of the most efficient investments to undertake a path to learning that lasts for life.

His name is Orin and he is four years old. This boy from Belize is lucky that his father Marshall read him stories before going to sleep. Marshall is a preschool teacher and is more aware than anyone of the importance of teaching children in an encouraging environment since they are small. Think that children need encouragement to develop their full potential.

© UNICEF/UN035760/LeMoyne

According to him, "you have to prepare the children for school long before they arrive in the classroom, only then can they benefit fully from the teachings". Orin starts studying elementary school in September and, like Pablo, enjoys reading his father's stories before going to bed. He is another lucky one.

Of the 61 million girls and boys who do not have access to primary education, approximately 26 million will never go to school, 23 will be late and 12 million will have left it. Unicef knows that all children should be like Orin and Pablo and have access to education from an early age. The organization also focuses on other areas such as: education and inclusion of girls, Amigas de la Infancia schools, education in emergency situations and reinforcement of education systems.

That children grow up away from any situation of violence, abuse, exploitation or abuse seems the most logical. Currently, one in ten girls in the world has been the victim of sexual abuse. That is why Unicef strives to strengthen public protection systems, involving families and communities. Above all, in situations of emergency and armed conflicts.