Where do they all go?

One of my main questions was with over 45 million orphans in Africa, where do they all go? Many of the children end up being cared for by the grandparents, particularly grandma. It's a hard life for all of them when the grandma can't work and has to support all her grand kids. Many of them cant afford to go to school because they have to get a job at a very young age just to buy food and clothing. Here are some peoples stories of their struggles. http://gbgm-umc.org/health/aidsafrica/nheweyembwachildtrust.cfm Trust, 14, lost both parents in 1999 from AIDS, and he tries to earn a living by making and repairing watches. He and his three siblings live with an elderly grandmother. "We have to do everything on our own," he says. "Each one of us looks for food and money to pay our fees to go to school." A sixteen year old girl named Naomi was asked to provide a glimpse of what her life is like, she becomes somber and tries to choke back her emotions. "My life is very hard to describe because my parents passed away, and the most difficult part is that my mother died before I had time to get to know her." Naomi lived with her father but grew up under the guidance of aunts. When her father died, she and a younger brother were on their own. She and her brother do what they can to seek out a daily living. Sometimes they have little or no food. "But," she says, "through God's grace and people's mercy, we survive." Another girl describes having to fight off a father who "drinks heavily and when he is drinking, he comes into my room, wakes me up and wants to get in the same bed with me." Her mother died last December, and "my father does not provide." She stopped attending school in the seventh grade to help care for herself and her sister's 2-year-old son. United Methodist News Service is withholding her name. Then there are the orphanages that hold 25% of the children but they are poor and don't have good conditions for the children. The UN mission in Liberia found that there was harsh and unsanitary conditions in many orphanages lacking basic requirements for the protection of the childrens emotional and physical well being and some are operating illegally. They are trafficking the children and charging outrageous prices to adopt them. $ $ $

A continent of Orphans