>> donate now!

After years of war the children in Angola are in urgent need of help. The civil war claimed the lives of 1.5 million people – and still today the consequences of the conflicts are clearly visible everywhere. In many villages, huts and schools have been destroyed. Many returning refugees have lost everything and girls and boys have often had no education for years. Children orphaned by war or AIDS are in danger of exploitation of or ending up on the streets.

Malawi is one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in Africa. Nearly one in five children die before their fifth birthday. In rural areas, particularly, there are too few schools. In many regions one in three children get no education at all. Classes are over-full and poorly equipped, and teaching often takes place in the open air. When it rains classes stop. Many children leave school prematurely, in part because teaching is often of a poor standard.

In Rwanda more than 600,000 children and adolescents are orphans whose mothers and father died during the mass murders in 1994, or from AIDS. The 1994 genocide claimed 800,000 human lives and left Rwanda devastated and traumatised. One in six schools was completely destroyed. There are insufficient school materials and trained teachers. Many children live in extreme poverty. The orphans in particular have scarcely any chance of education.

In Mozambique many families live in very poor, rural areas. There are too few schools and children are forced to help earn a living at too early an age. This means that across the country two in five children do not attend school. Girls are particularly disadvantaged. More than boys they suffer from the fact that many schools do not even have toilets. 320,000 children and adolescents who have lost a parent due to AIDS have little chance of attending school.

Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of AIDS infection in the world: a quarter of all adults are HIV positive. 980,000 children have already lost a parent due to AIDS. This fatal illness and the current drought have left many families in a dire state. The education situation is catastrophic. The land reforms meant that many families have had to settle in regions without schools. Here teaching takes place in temporary shacks, churches or under trees.

South Africa is a country of extreme social divisions. Following the ending of apartheid most South Africans still live in great poverty. In the country’s rural areas around a million children do not attend school. Girls have a particularly difficult time as many parents fear their daughters may be pestered or attacked on their way to school.