An array of complex factors is creating a rising population of ‘children on the move’, vulnerable to violence, exploitation, human trafficking and abuse.
Today, more than 4 million people reside in locations considered high risk for transmission of waterborne diseases due to unsafe water sources, poor sanitation and hygiene with nearly half the population in rural areas practicing open defecation and the city it has been reportedly said that people returns back the latrine systems which is unsafe. Chronic food insecurity remains an urgent issue for 3.5 million girls and boys living below the poverty datum line. There is risk of poor health and stunted growth due to greatly diminished access to all basic services and protections. The HIV and AIDS prevalence rate of 13.9 per cent remains one of the highest in the world, though a negative growth has been reported. 
Parents with children with HIV/AIDS leave there kids un cared for & they pass away earlier. When these parents die the children became orphans and most of them will have an oblique future, especially in our current economic situation which makes it difficult for step parents to provide all the needed support to these children.
As the door to accessibility to ARVs has been shunned to many due to economic factors especially those who are hidden down in the very remote areas of the country, were even cell phones are still not yet there, clinics are still kilometres away with river and dam water being their safest water sources. Life for children in such areas has always been pathetic (in contemptuous pity), orphans are forced to pull out from school due to financial hardships or abuse by step parents. They live in a world where they will grow old without wearing a shoe, neither a new trousers. Children with disabilities are hidden behind the doors.
Also even in towns the living conditions are turning the children to a menace as mothers do commercial sex for survival, all this leading to the pandemic of the deadly diseases, the children ending up in the streets , dying with HIV, indulging in early marriages and being sexually abused as they try to find survival means.
A lot has been said on the current pass rate of ordinary level students which is as low as 18 %, though being said as one of the highest in the past 15 years according to Zimsec table. This has lead into a blame game where others threw the blame to the politicians others to the teachers, others to the minister extra, many parents are crying of the uncontrollable behaviour their children, people are crying of thieves in the street. However it is my conviction that what ever we see is a result of our environment, as it all start when they are children.
In Zimbabwe most of the extended families have assumed responsibility of OVC but with little public support therefore leaving the burden transferred to the children, affecting more than 90 percent of all double orphans and single orphans not living with the surviving parent. The community where extended families’ resources are already stretched will experience the largest increase in AIDS deaths, orphan hood and vulnerability over the coming years. As the numbers of orphaned and vulnerable children rise, families are increasingly strained to meet the growing need for childcare. Children mostly being cared for by aunts and uncles/grandparents-extended family have not collapsed but need help to cope.
Where poverty and HIV coexist, children and households are at risk of great deprivation. The effects –often combined – of decreased income, increased expenses and higher dependency ratios can generate impoverishment in affected families. As the AIDS epidemic takes its toll on communities, there is some indication that orphaned children can end up in poorer households, perhaps because households able to care for an additional child are becoming saturated. In households affected by AIDS, more   spent caring for sick members, leaving fewer resources for the children in the household.
At least 25 percent of children born with HIV in Zimbabwe are a result of mothers who would have shunned anti-retroviral Therapy (ART), a sen¬ior Government health official has said. Ministry of Health and Child Wel¬fare national Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) co-ordinator Dr Angela Mushavi said a further 75 percent of HIV-positive children were born to mothers whose CD4 count is below 350. According to health experts, a CD4 count that is less than 350 is life-threat¬ening for pregnant women. “Seventy-five percent (75%) of the HIV born babies in the country are by mothers who have CD4 counts less than 350,” said Dr Mushavi. “The other 25 percent is a result of mothers who delay initiation of ART because they would have undertaken HIV and AIDS tests at a late stage of pregnancy.
The AIDS epidemic in Zimbabwe puts children at risk physically, emotionally and economically. All children are indirectly affected when their communities, and the services these communities provide, are strained by the consequences of the epidemic. Nurses, doctors, teachers and others can become ill and die from AIDS, affecting health care, education and other basic services. Children are directly affected in a number of ways. They may live at high risk of HIV; they may live with a chronically ill parent or parents and be required to work or put their education on hold as they take on household and care giving responsibilities; their households may experience greater poverty because of the disease; and they can be subject to stigma and discrimination because of their association with a person living with HIV. Children can also become orphans, having lost one or both parents to AIDS-related illnesses.
In sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is the leading cause of death among adults ages 15–59. Although the total number of orphans from all causes in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1990 has been decreasing, the number of orphans from all causes has risen by more than 50 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 12 million children age 0–17 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. This makes the region home to 80 per cent of all the children in the developing world who have lost a parent to the disease. Children are experiencing the greatest parental loss in southern Africa, where HIV prevalence rates are highest. Even where HIV prevalence stabilizes or begins to decline, the number of orphans will continue to grow or at least remain high for years, reflecting the time lag between HIV infection and death.
By Brenald Chinyowa
Founder &Director of RAY OF HOPE FOUNDATION            
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