Researcher: Bawa Yamba
The project started in 1998 and was completed in 2003
The research examines the situation of AIDS orphans
in sub-Saharan Africa from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The focus
is on reality as experienced by orphans: how they cope with the trauma
of losing a parent and the stigma of HIV/AIDS; their hopes for the future;
and the consequences of large-scale orphanhood for local societies in
Africa. The enormity of the problem is obvious from current figures,
which put the numbers of HIV/AIDS orphans worldwide well over nine million.
It is estimated that about 90% of these are living in sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite such figures, except for occasional and piecemeal efforts by
NGOs, few systematic research projects exist that address the psycho-social
needs of AIDS orphans, and the long-term socio-cultural consequences
for the societies in which they live. Past and present research has
mainly focused on micro and macro level socio-economic impacts of HIV/AIDS.
Whenever prevention strategies and mitigation of the epidemic are considered,
it is usually populations that are deemed important for economic production
that become the focus of attention. Yet no one can deny that children
- many of them orphans - are the true vestiges of hope for a future
world, less vulnerable and less susceptible to the epidemic. A prerequisite
for such a world is the successful prevention and control of HIV in
the young. Orphanhood makes the achievement of such a future scenario
difficult; AIDS orphans have a death rate that is three to five times
higher than that of their peers; they suffer from poorer health, and
are often malnourished. But, worst of all, they are usually driven by
necessity to resort to survival strategies that make them easily sexually
exploited. This, in turn, puts them at increased risk of being infected
with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV.
Focus
The research will focus on a number of themes dealing
with different aspects of the problem. Initially, sub-studies will be
designed to cover the following broad areas:
- the consequences of large scale orphanhood for social
structure in societies where the parent generations have died of AIDS,
and siblings have to assume the role of caregivers responsible for
their brothers and sisters;
- the effect of orphanhood on the extended family tradition
in Africa;
- the empowerment and protection of the girl-child, one
of the most vulnerable victims of AIDS and orphanhood;
- strategies for provision of education, improved health
care, and ensuring food security for orphans;
- orphans, street children and prostitution;
- counselling and psycho-social support for orphans.
Fieldwork
Fieldwork has been done in four African countries: Ghana,
Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in collaboration with researchers based
in local institutions. An effort was made to synthesise the theoretical
and practical aspects of the project and other relevant work on AIDS orphans,
by making research results and findings available to policy makers. Further,
a specific effort was made to identify successful local initiatives
and strategies that address the problem of orphans, with the intention
of promoting their replication elsewhere.
C. Bawa Yamba, who was born in Ghana, became a naturalised Swede
in 1972. He studied at the Universities of Stockholm and London (SOAS),
receiving his PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Stockholm
in 1990. Apart from a brief period as Senior Research Officer at SAREC
(the research department of the Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency, Sida) Yamba was with Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden,
where he co-ordinated a research project on HIV/AIDS in East and Southern
Africa. His principal interests are the study of ritual and moral institutions,
traditional epistemologies and worldviews, and HIV/AIDS. He was appointed
Research Fellow for Sweden at the Nordic Africa Institute in October
1998.
