Although more children in Africa are affected by AIDS by becoming an AIDS orphan rather than  actually contracting the virus, there are still many children in sub-Saharan Africa who have been personally striken with this horrible disease.  AIDS does not discriminate by age, and among the millions dying of the disease on the continant there are thousands and thousands of children.  By the end of 1997, 1.1 million children were living with HIV. AIDS is now the fifth leading cause of death amongst children of 1- 4 years, and seventh in young people between the ages of 15 and 24 (http://www.pedhivaids.org/education/children_living.html).  According to the UN, as of December 31, 1999, one million children under age 15 are victims of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa alone... with combined child and adult deaths to AIDS totalling 14.8 million people [3.3 million were children] (http://www.iara-usa.org/IARA_Projects/Countries/Kenya/ACF_AIDs_in_Africa/acf_aids_in_africa.html).
And in many regions, the numbers continue to grow.

    In addition to the physical pain of living with this horrible disease, often these children are scorned by their communities and shunned by their neighbors.  Many of the children who suffer with AIDS are stigmatized and discrimination against because of the misinformed belief that the disease is spread through casual contact.  Other children will refuse to play with them because they are afraid to catch the virus.  These suffering children, most of whom got the disease from their mothers in childbirth, not only deal with physical consequences of the virus for most if not all of their short lives, but also the emotional and mental consequences of the society's reaction to their illness.

"no one will drink from the same cup as me or use the same plate..."

"in my church, they isolated me; I had to sit in the back apart from others so I stopped going"

"children at school said `your mother has that disease; we don't want to catch it'..."

(Human Rights Watch)