August 21, 2007

Aids Orphans in Kambuzuma



There are that many aids orphans. Nobody counts them, nobody knows who is infected or not. Just one example: Kambuzuma is just out of Harare. It is a suburb that was built in the sixties with about a thousend small houses containing two small rooms each and a little garden behind the house. they might even have electricity and water from the tap. there are about 17 inhabitants per house, mostly extended family, which basicly means grandma, aunts, oncles, cousins and many children, that are often orphants. It is not easy to get enough food for all of them considering an unemployment rate of over 80% in this area.

A lot of them don't really look healthy, but a ride in the bus to the hospital in town is very expensive for them. it is around 40€ cents. And then getting a blood test at the hospital just went up from 20 €Cents to about 3 €. And without this blood test you cannot get cheap antiretroviral drugs from the government. Which means that lady I have just seen will probably die very soon.

And even if not. Those cheap medicals are only given to you for one year. Then you have to renew the "free medical treatment" document, and that will only happen if your blood tesults are bad enough.


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