Aids Orphans in Lesotho
Lesotho has one of the highest rates of incidence of HIV/AIDS in Africa. 29% of the adult population is affected. There are 100,000 children who are orphans as a result of HIV/AIDS. That is 55% of all orphans. In Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, the rate of incidence is 40%.
Maseru Aids Orphans
In Maseru, SOS Children has worked, since June 2003, to support orphaned and vulnerable children and their families, with a community-based child-care and support programme. This focuses in particular on children who are orphans living alone or living with relatives and children whose parents are chronically ill. In the school, SOS Children works with the Ministry of Education to provide advice and information on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In the SOS Social and Medical Centres, SOS Children is working with the Ministries of Health and Social Welfare, reaching out to 1000 orphaned and vulnerable children and their families every month, providing voluntary counselling and testing and where appropriate anti-retroviral drugs.