The “Uhodari” association, a local structure that supervises HIV/AIDS orphans, revealed this Sunday, May 7 in Beni that at least eighty children orphaned by HIV/AIDS live without assistance in this city. And this, on the occasion of the Day of children orphan=4#ins of HIV.
Dr. Nicaise Mathe, coordinator of the National AIDS Control Program (PNLS) in Greater North Kivu, added that 128 people living with HIV (PLWHA) died in the seventeen health zones that accompany the PNLS in the greater North Kivu. This situation, according to him, has only increased the number of orphans of this disease.
The PNLS supervises more than ten thousand people living with HIV / AIDS in the great North Kivu. More than a hundred died in 2022, said Dr. Nicaise Mathe, coordinator of the PNSL in the territories of Beni and Lubero but also in the cities of Beni and Butembo:
“We have counted approximately 10,321 people living with HIV, who are supported in our 17 health zones. In the year 2022, we have lost approximately 128 PVV. This means that the number of orphans left behind by these PLW increases overnight”.
Esther Kavugho, herself a PVV and head of the Uhodari association, pleads for holistic support from the government and humanitarian organizations, to guarantee a normal life for these orphans:
“Within the Uhodari association, we support 80 orphaned children. Among them, we have 30 who have AIDS, but the rest are only orphans. They are all in foster or surrogate families. Our role is to visit them regularly, provide them with advice and refer them for care. The government only helps us with medical care. We receive free antiretrovirals”.
As for the survival needs of children, Esther Kavugho organizes the rounds of churches, to solicit help, which is not always enough.
She reiterates the need to help these vulnerable children, sends an SOS to humanitarian organizations and asks the government to implement its policy of taking charge of PLWHA.