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South Africa: Business, HIV Link
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Cape Argus (Cape Town)
24 July 2008
Posted to the web 24 July 2008
Angelique Serrao
Private business needs to take more responsibility for the country's children, especially those affected by malnutrition and HIV and Aids.
This is according to a children's rights group that on Wednesday took part in a discussion held by the South African Business Coalition on HIV and Aids on how business impacts on the lives of children and what they can do to improve children's lives.
Cati Vawdi, of the Children's Rights Centre, said businesses do not see a link between children and the private sector, and with children's rights groups having to go to them to beg for money all the time, fatigue had started to set in.
She said that even though the core business of companies was the bottom line, it was important to remember that when doing business, they had an effect on the world.
"The economic sphere is part of and dependent on society's help," she said.
This started at the workplace, and Vawdi said that what happened at work had an impact on homes.
"If a worker has been belittled at work or their dignity has been impaired, and that employee goes home angry, who do you think he takes it out on? Children are affected by workplace practices, whether you see them or not," she said.
Children's groups had also found that jobs were important when fighting child abuse. If a family was economically stable, the impact on children's lives was significant.
Vawdi said that focusing on having a child-friendly society was important because there were more than 17-million children in South Africa. This was 40 percent of the population - the largest single grouping in South Africa.
Vawdi said an increasing number of children's rights groups were in great need and had increasingly strained resources.
Furthermore there were higher levels of violence against, between and around children, and children were increasingly malnourished.
More children were living on the streets, and an increasing number of children were found to be involved in child labour.
Children infected and affected by HIV and Aids were a particularly vulnerable group, said Vawdi.
She said that of the 1 000 000 babies born every year in South Africa, many were born with, were exposed to or contracted HIV.
"There were 64 000 babies newly infected with HIV this year alone," Vawdi said.
"Some 3,8-million are orphaned in South Africa, according to 2006 surveys, and the number and percentage of children living with HIV is increasing, especially for under-13s."
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Vawdi said it was estimated that by 2015 more than 5-million children would be orphaned in South Africa.
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