Panafrican News Agency - February 10, 1999
Musengwa Kayaya, PANA Correspondent

The film, entitled "Everyone's Child", was developed by the Zimbabwean Media for Development Trust with a view to help develop sustainable community based care of AIDS orphans in particular and HIV/AIDS victims generally.

It tells the story of two children who are obliged to assume responsibilities of adulthood after the death of both their parents from AIDS.

Peter Sinyangwe of the Family Health Trust Zambian anti-aids NGO, which is coordinating distribution of the film in Zambia, told PANA Wednesday that its screening would be helpful as AIDS-orphaned children faced similar situations in Zambia and other African countries, which needed immediate redress.

"We intend that this film be seen by as many Zambians as possible to help change public attitudes towards AIDS orphans," said Sinyangwe.

The film portrays various aspects, including property grabbing and negligency of the orphans by the immediate members of the family and neighbours once their parents die of AIDS.

It also depicts the desperation of the two older children of the four orphans left behind by parents who succumbed to AIDS.

One of the characters is forced to be a street kid in Harare while the girl is forced to indulge in prostitution at the risk of contracting HIV, which causes AIDS.

The climax of the story occurs when one of the younger children is burnt to death in the house after mishandling fire.

This awakens the community to take note and start to care for the remaining orphans.

The Family Health Trust, which acquired the film from Zimbabwe, has described the work as a story of "love and triumph of the human spirit in the face of tragedy."

The Trust said the film has the potential of changing attitudes for the better among the African public in the wake of the increasing numbers of aids orphans in the region.

Zambian anti-AIDS activists, including the ministry of health, estimate that the country could have as many as 600,000 AIDS orphans by the year 2000.

Sinyangwe said Wednesday that the message contained in "Everyone's Child" is also intended to make the public more aware of their responsibility to meet the various needs of the AIDS orphaned population now and in the future.

These include shelter, food, clothing, education, clean water, affection and love.

Zambian sociologists have of late reported of a dramatic increase in child-headed households, particularly in the urban areas where the traditional bonds of the "extended family" seem to be fast loosening.

Under traditional Zambian and African society, orphaned children become automatic responsibility of the surviving relatives of both parents or are expected to be adopted by non relatives where no immediate blood relations exist.
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