OVCs: Mitigating The Trauma

As the AIDS discourse gathers momentum across the African continent, we find a unique population emerging and gaining numbers. This is the population of those negatively impacted by the AIDS pandemic. Sadly, Africa claims the lion share of this unfortunate group with 13.2 million orphans - children who, before the age of 15 have lost either their mother or both parents to AIDS – which constitute 95% of total AIDS-generated orphans worldwide. This population is comprised of individuals whose parents (one or both) have become, not just victims but casualties of AIDS. By this I mean they have died as a result of HIV/AIDS infection.
As these are lost to death courtesy of AIDS, left behind are a host of individuals whose lives are automatically altered by such an unfortunate development. They include both nuclear and extended family members who have to adjust to accommodate the loss of a family member to AIDS.
Apart from other relatives, there are the children of those demised through AIDS who constitute the nucleus of those we refer to as PABAs or People Affected By AIDS. These, almost always, are children and youths who are very tender in age and are still at the stage of understanding themselves and their surrounding environment.
These suddenly become orphans and must now have to adjust to the harsh realities of life without a parent, without a breadwinner and without the protective social umbrella they have enjoyed all along while their parents were alive. It is due to these that they are referred to as vulnerable children.
Imagine a child who suddenly has to fend for himself because the little resources the family had has been exhausted on the treatment of the now dead parent or guardian. Imagine a little girl who suddenly has to cater to needs of her siblings while she is yet to appreciate her personality and all that goes with it. Imagine a little boy who now has adulthood foisted on him and now has to shirk his youth and assume responsibilities of a man due to the loss of his parents. These images, you will agree with me, do not give one cause for comfort!
Ordinarily, the challenges orphans have to grapple with in our society are overwhelming, but these challenges appreciate in the case of AIDS-generated orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). Wherever they turn, children who have lost a mother or both parents to AIDS face a future even more difficult than that of other orphans. Not only do they find it difficult mixing up with the larger society, they also find it a huge challenge meeting their basic needs. This is consequent upon their being discriminated against by social institutions, work setups, and even ignorant family members who believe they share the plague of AIDS with their dead parents. Stigmatization, no doubt, is a monster that stares orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in the face and trains tears in their eyes.
In Africa as a whole, AIDS is generating orphans so quickly that family structures can no longer cope with the strain. Traditional safety nets are unraveling as more and more young adults die of this disease. Families and communities can barely fend for themselves, let alone take care of orphans and moreso orphans whose parents have depleted the collective resources of the family or community in the quest to salvage their lives.
Life in the Nigeria on a good day is a hard life without basic social amenities, adequate means of livelihood, institutional failure, corruption and a pervading pessimistic outlook on life. Hope has long taken flight and has been replaced in the present with despair in many communities across the country. Thus coping with the additional strain of catering to AIDS orphans, for both individual families and communities, is a Herculean task.
With discrimination and stigmatization at their doorstep, it becomes evident what a harsh life these youths and children orphaned and rendered vulnerable by AIDS must now contend with. It is to say the least a sorry state of affairs these young ones find themselves enmeshed.
These circumstances foisted on this peculiar population having impacted negatively on them place them with very difficult and unpleasant options. For the boys, cultism, hooliganism, violence, armed robbery and other sordid vices suddenly become very attractive. The girls on the other hand, having more constraints to grapple with in their young lives than the boys, somehow either fall for sexual predators, child/women traffickers or go outrightly and deliberately into full-scale and unfettered prostitution or other forms of criminal activities all in the name of survival. However, for those who dare to be different and won’t concede to dissolute conduct, they have to suffer for real or work very hard and be paid a pittance to make ends meet. Not to talk of the discrimination and stigmatization that will attend their attempt at making life go on.
So having heard it all, what is to be done with these unique individuals whose destiny is at the mercy of society. What should be the impact mitigation interventions offerable to them? First, I deem we can form a consensus on the fact that whichever way the lives of these children and youths turn will impact severely on all of us. If they become responsible adults tomorrow the society will benefit. But where they turn out to be criminals and social liabilities everyone of us will have to grapple with what they can do either as armed robbers, street urchins or militants. Consequently, it becomes obvious that we (governments, corporate bodies, civil society organizations (CSOs) and individuals) are all stakeholders in the circumstances and destiny of AIDS orphans.
There is need for all concerned to take a more than cursory look at the circumstances OVCs find themselves. A lot needs to be done about these children and youths in the area of providing them with social safety nets. More than ever before these young ones need a means of livelihood. Initiating skills acquisition and computer literacy programmes, entrepreneurship and wealth creation initiatives and financing of small and medium scale enterprises can suffice. In the interim, government can avail them of subsidies in the areas of food, medical treatment and housing.
They need a soft landing with respect to their educational aspirations. Corporate bodies, government agencies, philanthropists, foundations, community development committees (CDCs), women groups, and other stakeholders can put together scholarships for these kids in order not to circumvent their educational development.
The society at large needs to be sensitized and given a re-orientation on the negative impact stigmatization can have on OVCs on the short and long term basis. It is also important that these children are not left to live on the streets or be exposed to the dangers of homelessness because no one would offer them a roof over their heads. These young ones can fall prey to ritual murderers, rapists, hoodlums, and other angels of the night. And this needs not be allowed to be. All aspects of our society need to rise to the rescue of these kids.

A GATHERING OF EAGLES!

When a crucial moments meet, it is not a matter of conjecture what next an action should be, or how necessary or urgent such action should be. I say this with regards to the annual interregnum in the academic calendar of the Nigerian education system at the primary and secondary levels. From the end of July to the beginning of September, Nigerian kids go home to have some reprieve from schoolwork, reappraise their performance in the just concluded session and prepare for the next academic session. Some kids will anticipate going on to the next class while some would inevitably repeat the previous class. Still there are those who would go from the primary to secondary level.
During this long vacation, many young people engage in various activities to while away the time. Some spend the period profitably but some choose to waste the time doing nothing significant. And yet these are the young people who form the bulk of the youth population of the great nation.
In-school youths, specifically those in secondary schools and those just out of secondary school combined with the rest who are learning one trade or the other in the workshops, constitute the huge percentage of the general population of young people in this country. This youth population added to those in tertiary institutions constitute the prospective leaders of this nation and those that will ultimately chart the course of her destiny in few years from now.
But the issue is that when one takes the youth into a collective whole and reviews their inclinations, activities and performances in recent times, it leaves one with certain trepidation. This is borne out of the turn of events in different parts of the country. Youth-related violence, examination malpractice, drug abuse, sexually-transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, fast-eroding moral values, disrespect for constituted authority, unwholesome indulgence, and the lot are almost becoming synonymous with the character profile of our youth.
Recent events in the Niger Delta are no funny lullabies. Militancy exerted on the region by disgruntled and misguided youths has impacted negatively on the economic and social life of the nation and even the international community. The just concluded General Elections in the country saw irregularities laced with violence perpetrated by youths. Cultism and examination malpractice in our higher institution are another sad aspect of activities of our youth. Put together, these gives every conscientious Nigerian a source of concern.
Against this background and during this long vacation comes the YOUTH SUCCESS CAMP 2007, an auspicious event crafted for the youth across the nation. It is an epochal gathering tailored to meet the needs of a generation of youth who are facing and living with challenges their parents didn’t know. With the issues of poverty, new and incurable diseases, institutional failure, dearth of qualitative leadership, economic recess on a global scale, etc staring at humanity boldly in the face, there can never be a better time for such an event to come up.
This event is billed for August 21st through 25th of this year and would hold simultaneously in both the 36 state capitals and major towns in each state. The youth department of the deeper Christian life ministry is acting as convener and plans to execute this programme across the country in active collaboration with stakeholders such community leaders, civil society organizations, government agencies, traditional institutions, youth groups, professional bodies, security agencies, churches, and others. Everything possible is to be invested in the successful execution of the programme.
Across four days and eight sessions, speakers will address the physical, spiritual, academic, moral, and mental aspects of the youths. Speakers will be drawn from the academia, clergy, medical profession, security agencies, and other areas and will address issues such as HIV/AIDS, cultism, drug abuse, health, examination malpractice, academic success and morality. Leading the pack of speakers that will deliver papers across the various event venues will be Dr. William Folorunsho Kumuyi, Senior Pastor and General Overseer of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, whose messages to the youth will be relayed live via satellite downlink to the various locations.
Youths have potentials yet untapped and needs a forum such this to unveil themselves, develop their talents, groom their skills and be motivated for the next level. Participants will be drawn from every strata of the youth population. Everyone is invited.
A revolution on a major scale is about to be unleashed on the moral, intellectual and social fronts. God in His infinite mercies has earmarked the Nigerian youth to birth this revolution and the Nigerian people cannot sit back and watch askance. Everyone is concerned as long as the issue is youth-related and as such none should shy away from contributing his/her resources and effort to make this event a huge success. It will be a gathering of where youths will learn to fly high and soar to heights previously unattained. A real gathering of eagles!