The experiences of family caregivers concerning their care of HIV/AIDS orphans

Abstract

Introduction: The HIV/AIDS pandemic is reducing life expectancy and raising mortality. An increasing orphan population is perhaps the most tragic and long-term legacy of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. By 2010 sub-Saharan Africa is expected to have an estimated 50 million orphans and it will be staggered by this challenge. By the middle of 2006, 1.5 million children under the age of 18 years were maternal orphans in South Africa, and 66% of these children had been orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS. Although government and non-government organisations have responded by building orphanages, most of Africa's orphans have been absorbed into extended family networks. Many of these extended family caregivers are ageing and often impoverished grandparents.