Overcoming this challenge may well truly test our democracy
THREE weeks ago the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) held a conference to highlight the growing number of orphans in the region.
It reported that there were 17 million orphaned children out of a population of 250million people within the region.
Far from being a mere talk shop, the meeting was a clarion call for action.
In South Africa, the number of Aids orphans stood at 1,9 million by 2009. Viewed outside the grave loss of human life, the figures may just pass by without raising alarm.
Failing to heed the warning might rob SADC governments of the much-needed urgency to act against the tide of the epidemic.
The risk, in the face of apparent lethargic attitude, is that we might get accustomed to numbers and, by extension, become desensitised to the life-and-death battle on our hands.
Overcoming this challenge may well truly test our democracy.
The point that should hit home here is that we are dealing with the loss of lives of parents, whose absence would have left their children vulnerable and facing a bleak future.
A democracy that sadly loses the battle for the desired life expectancy of its citizens fails the measure of the right to life. Yet this right is a moral imperative by which our country stands obligated to honour in terms of the Constitution.
With children said to be accounting for half of the country's population, this simply means that half of our future is not only at risk but also is uncertain.
We ignore this prognosis at the peril of our country's future.
Children are our future
Overcoming this challenge may well truly test our democracy
THREE weeks ago the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) held a conference to highlight the growing number of orphans in the region.
It reported that there were 17 million orphaned children out of a population of 250million people within the region.
Far from being a mere talk shop, the meeting was a clarion call for action.
In South Africa, the number of Aids orphans stood at 1,9 million by 2009. Viewed outside the grave loss of human life, the figures may just pass by without raising alarm.
Failing to heed the warning might rob SADC governments of the much-needed urgency to act against the tide of the epidemic.
The risk, in the face of apparent lethargic attitude, is that we might get accustomed to numbers and, by extension, become desensitised to the life-and-death battle on our hands.
Overcoming this challenge may well truly test our democracy.
The point that should hit home here is that we are dealing with the loss of lives of parents, whose absence would have left their children vulnerable and facing a bleak future.
A democracy that sadly loses the battle for the desired life expectancy of its citizens fails the measure of the right to life. Yet this right is a moral imperative by which our country stands obligated to honour in terms of the Constitution.
With children said to be accounting for half of the country's population, this simply means that half of our future is not only at risk but also is uncertain.
We ignore this prognosis at the peril of our country's future.
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