The context

According to the UN, 56,1 million children living in sub-Saharan Africa are orphans, of which 14,9 million have been orphaned by Aids.  Over the last decade the proportion of children orphaned by Aids has progressed from 3,5% to 32%.
In Uganda for a population of 34.6 million, there are 2,7 million orphans of which about a half are the result of Aids.
Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world, with 86% of its 12,9 million inhabitants living below the bread line. The number of orphans of parent’s victim of Aids is estimated at 1,3 million.
In Kenya for  a population of 39,8 million,  there are 2,6 million orphans.

Most families affected by the virus do not have access to any sort of health care or social services, which are often inexistent, too expensive or too far from their homes. They have to reduce their basic expenditure including food and sell their belongings to pay for medicine. Girls are often taken out of school to care for the sick.

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The children are thus doubly victims since they can only go to school occasionally or not at all due to their vulnerable situation. Some, very young take to the streets of large cities, sometimes in groups, trying to find food, but they are also exposed to delinquency, drugs, sexual abuse or being enlisted by force as child soldiers, mercenaries in the civil wars that ravage certain regions. The marginalization which causes this situation also leads to the development of other diseases, especially malaria and tuberculosis.

The School System

The figures show that a child that abandons school is three times more likely to become seropositive with HIV than a child that finishes his schooling. According to the 2007 Unesco figures for sub-Saharan Africa the percentage of children attending primary school is only 73% and only one child in two reaches the end of elementary studies.
Primary school is in principle free, but the families of the pupils must contribute to the upkeep of the buildings. Classes of 80 children do not allow the pupils to learn enough to pass the exams that are necessary to continue to secondary school, other public schools are better provided for, but the fees are very expensive.

School materials are very costly and must be paid for by the family. All secondary schools and universities are fee paying. Schooling for girls is especially uncertain and to pay their way some girls resort to prostitution running the risk of pregnancy or venereal disease or Aids. If they become pregnant or sick, they stop school and run away from their families.

To combat exclusion from school is to give children a chance to live!