-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Want to send this story to another AOL member? Click on the heart at the top of this window. AIDS destroying families across Africa By Kieran Murray NAMAVE, Uganda, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Joyce Nasuuna still has a grandmother's glint in her eye, a sign of amazing strength for someone who has had to bury so many children. Even in a continent devastated by AIDS, Nasuuna's story is tragic. Nine of her 12 children have died, at least six of them victims of AIDS, and five of her grandchildren have also been killed by the disease. She now lives in a miserable mud home outside the Ugandan capital Kampala that literally crumbles whenever heavy rains roll through, and she has been left alone to look after nine remaining grandchildren. The children are regularly sick and doctors suspect at least two are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But Nasuuna, 63, still finds a few things to smile about. ``Sometimes I feel happy, especially when we have something to eat, when the children are happy and playing,'' she says as some of the children scamper around the small plot of land next to the tiny one-room hut where all 10 of them sleep, curled up together on the dirt floor. ``I would have been living here alone but, because of my grandchildren, I keep busy all the time and that makes me happy,'' she says with a smile, her two-year-old granddaughter Kisakye -- which means Mercy in Luganda -- sleeping on her lap. Nasuuna admits, however, she can keep her spirits up only by blocking out much of the past, and part of her future too. ``I have to forget about the dead ones and concentrate on the orphans. I have to find their food and make sure they are safe,'' she says, although 'making sure they are safe' does not mean finding out whether they are healthy or not. ``I am afraid of getting them tested,'' she says. ``I am not sure which ones are HIV-positive. I was advised by the medical people not to have them tested because there will be bad news and it will bring me a lot of bad thoughts.'' It would also make very little difference to their chances of survival. While many patients in the West have benefited from drug cocktails that slow down the progression of AIDS, such treatment is way too expensive for virtually all Africans. Instead, doctors able to deal with lethal AIDS-related illnesses like tuberculosis or diarrhoea only when they occur. Almost no HIV-positive pregnant women are given drugs to prevent them passing the virus on to their children. FAMILIES CAN NO LONGER COPE In the past, the effects of poverty, unemployment, illness and death were mitigated by the strength of extended families across the continent -- relatives would help each other through short-term crises with food and shelter, and take in orphaned children as their own. But now AIDS is tearing holes even in that last line of defence, simply because it is killing so many would-be providers and the remaining adults of working age already have their hands full looking after their own children. The United Nations estimates that about 11.2 million children have been orphaned by AIDS worldwide with 95 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and the number will rise to above 13 million by the end of this year. Women like Nasuuna are increasingly being left to look after their grandchildren and the number of households headed by children is also rising dramatically. ``The safety net is traditionally aunts and uncles but they are now saying 'We are struggling and we have our own children. If we take in more, our own will suffer','' says Geoff Foster, a paediatrician who works with a church-based charity helping AIDS orphans in the Mutare region of eastern Zimbabwe. ``When the aunts and uncles are unwilling or unable to help, the children are going to grandparents...and when that final safety net fails you see more and more child-headed households.'' CHILDREN TAKE OVER AS ADULTS John Buule's family in the central Ugandan village of Lweza lives in a four-room brick home and was relatively comfortable before AIDS took its toll. His father died in 1997 after spending the last two years of his life in bed, and his mother followed him three months later, leaving John alone to raise his seven brothers and sisters, aged between seven and 14. John, now 19, gets up every morning at five, makes breakfast for everyone, sends them off to school, goes out to work and rushes home to make sure they are all fed and washed before bed. Lively and jovial, John says he likes the role of parent, playing with the children and cajoling them to study hard and keep the house clean, but the pressure of doing it all by himself without help from relatives sometimes gets to him. ``No one wants to help us. When my father died, my mother was already sick and couldn't get out of bed. But they told me they had their own problems. And now they never come to see us,'' he says, tears welling up in his eyes. Aware that he is the only person standing between his brothers and sisters and destitution, John has an acute sense of the need to keep healthy. At his age and in a country where AIDS is widespread, he says that means staying away from women. ``I don't want a girlfriend. I saw how my parents suffered and I don't want to leave the children here alone,'' he says. ``So now, I don't sleep with girls.'' 21:04 02-19-00 Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. 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