Orphans and vulnerable children: service provision in Lesotho

Abstract

Astonishing results of Lesotho's most recent population census reveals that the small country experienced a 70% increase in the number of orphans during the ten-year period from 1996 to 2006. Eye-catching too is the fact that more than 20% of Lesotho's orphans had lost both parents, and that AIDS-related illnesses account for the vast majority of these cases, writes DUNCAN SCOTT. Against this background, the state of service provision for orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) in the impoverished country has come under the spotlight. An AIDS orphan is understood as a child who is an orphan because one or both parents died from AIDS.