The Ministry of Social Affairs has identified delay in submitting reports of HIV orphans and other vulnerable children by NGOs as an obstacle in caring for them.

Stakeholders declared this recently during the evaluation of the National Programme of Assistance to Orphans and other Vulnerable Children for the year 2007.The evaluation falls within the 2006-2010 national strategic plan in the fight against HIV/AIDS being implemented by the National Aids Control Committee, NACC.

On the occasion, the Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda, expressed worry that the delays in submitting the reports blocked the disbursement of finances from the Global Fund for the Fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and Tuberculosis.

He advised NGOs that cannot cope with the submitting their reports to quit the programme. He announced that for 2008, FCFA 1, 5 million has been earmarked to assist 30,000 orphans.

The programme of assistance to HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable children started in 2004 with two NGOs, and now has 52 NGOs working with children spread in 70 sites all over the country.

One of the NGOs operating in Yaounde IV, Association of Women Living HIV/AIDS, by its French acronym AFASO, said with the second quarter of the finances not yet available, nutritional assistance to orphans has not yet been taken care of.