Overall, 9% of children in sub-Saharan Africa have lost at least one parent to AIDS however, in Zambia and Swaziland, 25% and 35% of children, respectively, have lost at least one parent. In comparison, there are 320 000 orphans in the United States. As of 2003, an estimated 15 million children under 18 years of age have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS worldwide, and 12 million of these live in sub-Saharan Africa (see Figure 2). Without HIV/AIDS, the number of double orphans would have declined from 1990–2010. In spite of these shortcomings, the above definition is the most commonly used. However, some researchers would argue that maternal orphans become virtual double orphans (i.e., those who have lost both parents) because some fathers in this situation, while not dead, are not present and actively contributing to the care of the children. Some agencies and studies only count orphans as children who have lost their mothers (i.e., maternal orphans), not their fathers (i.e., paternal orphans).
Finally, there is the issue of who is counted as a child orphan. There are cultural nuances in the use of the term ‘child orphan.’ For example, in some African countries, an orphan is a destitute child, regardless of whether he or she has a mother or father or both who have died. A definition of child orphans that used the language of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines a child as anyone 18 years of age or less, would include this vulnerable population of 15- to 18-year-olds. Adolescents beyond 15 years of age have needs and require adult support. However, there are problems with this definition. Kasper, in International Encyclopedia of Public Health, 2008 Prevalence of Orphaned and Vulnerable ChildrenĪ commonly used definition of ‘orphan’ is a child whose parents died before the child reached the age of 15.
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