Children on the brink : updated estimates & recommendations for intervention [HIV/AIDS impacts on children]

This executive summary of the report includes: new orphan estimates for 34 countries; a description of what children, families, and communities are doing to address their growing orphan problems; strategies for intervention that have been adopted; and a new strategic agenda to guide coherent action by the world community

AIDS has transformed large-scale orphaning, historically a sporadic, short-term problem caused by war, famine, or disease, into a long-term chronic problem that will extend at least through the first third of this century. According to most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 15.6 million children under 15 have already lost their mother or both parents to AIDS or other causes. By 2010, there will be 24.3 million maternal and double orphans, and 44 million who have lost at least one parent. Children on the Brink 2000, an update of a 1997 original, documents this mounting tragedy.

Full report is available at: http://www.dec.org/pdf_docs/pnacc519.pdf