The Summit on HIV/AIDS convened by the Organization of African Unity and hosted by Nigeria is taking place on 26-27 April 2001 in Abudja. In addition to African leaders, participants include the Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, heads of United Nations agencies and private sector executives, as well as hands-on AIDS workers and experts.

• Through Microcredit IFAD helps build a future for HIV/AIDS orphans in Uganda

• Kiarostami’s film on Uganda’s orphans will be screened at Cannes

In Uganda, strong blood ties extend to even the most distant relatives. This is a blessing: two million children in Uganda – almost 20 percent of the population of children under 18 years of age - are orphans, having lost one or both parents to AIDS. The abilities of extended rural African families to care for these children are stretched to the limit because one out of every four families in Uganda is looking after at least one child orphaned by AIDS, and many care for ten or more.

Benedete Nakayima’s ''children'' number 35, 15 boys and 20 girls. She herself lost 6 daughters and 5 sons, all to AIDS. Every morning, Benedete prepares matoke, a banana paste that is popular in Uganda. The fishermen nearby at Lake Victoria simply can’t get enough of it, and Benedete delivers a steaming dish to them every day, placing the cumbersome container on her head and walking the few kilometres to the lake. In exchange for the matoke, she receives a good quantity of fish, which she then sells to the village. Once this morning ritual is completed, she is ready to prepare the matoke for her grandchildren, with vegetables and sometimes with meat, and then tend to the other products that help her to earn an income. ''This way, the children can go to school and have a future.''

With the technical expertise of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in microcredit and the financial support of the Belgian Survival Fund, the Ugandan Women’s Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO) - a grassroots non-governmental organization – has helped 33,000 orphans and their adoptive families build promising futures with the help of microcredit. Among other resources, microcredit remains key to unlocking these capacities vital to healing the wounds of lives and communities ravaged by AIDS.

Since 1986, UWESO has helped thousands of orphans rebuild their lives through building on the capacities that they, their guardians, and their communities possess. Beyond the shock of losing one or both parents, significant questions of survival await these orphans. If they are of a young age, who will take care of them? And, for those taking care of them, how will they do so? If they are older, how will they support themselves?

A decade of political and civil strife in Uganda that began in the mid-70s has left the economy in shambles and the rural population, roughly 90%, in even deeper poverty. The per capita income of Uganda is $276/year and, with the addition of orphans, 8-12 children may be found in a given household.

Thus, adding another mouth to feed and mind to educate can constitute a real challenge.

Rovina Ndagire is a 65-year old widow who lost her four sons to AIDS. She is now the guardian of 11 children, four boys and seven girls, ranging from 1 to 16 years old. After joining UWESO in 1994, she has received 3 loans. With each loan she buys and sells tobacco, raises pigs and rabbits, and brews banana juice. She is now able to provide these orphans with food, clothing, and medicines. She is also able to afford sending the children of appropriate age to primary school.

Joachim Ddumba is 22 years old. With the death of his parents in 1994, he became responsible for providing for himself and three brothers. After going through a training program in mechanics, he received two loans to open and expand a radio mechanic and repair shop. He is able to provide for his brothers and send them to school.

The internationally renowned Iranian filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami, visited Uganda at the invitation of IFAD and BSF, to produce a documentary on the efforts of rural women in Uganda to save lives of orphans who have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

The documentary film ABC Africa is being presented at the Cannes Film Festival, 9 – 20 May 2001.

This was the first time that Kiarostami made a film outside his home country. Particularly sensitive to the cause of children rights as reflected throughout his film repertoire, Kiarostami has won the admiration of audiences and critics worldwide; Akira Kurosawa said of Kiarostami’s ''extraordinary'' films: ''Words cannot describe my feelings about them and I simply advise you to see his films''. After his visit to Uganda, Abbas Kiarostami stated:

''…the very special atmosphere of the country and the friendliness of the people remain in my mind''

Kiarostami himself has been a member of the jury of Cannes Film Festival in 1993 and received the Palme d’Or in 1997 for the film ''The taste of the cherry''. He was also awarded the Special Prize of the Jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1999.

In Uganda, the AIDS orphans are ours

''The burgeoning AIDS epidemic affects the entire country. The father usually dies first and is quickly followed by the mother, mostly due to malaria, which destroys bodily resistance. The orphans are doubly penalized because not only are they deprived and vulnerable, but the foster family that takes them in usually comes from the most vulnerable groups. The foster families themselves face serious labour constraints.

''The children affected by HIV/AIDS are emotionally vulnerable, financially desperate, face a greater risk of being abused, and are exposed to stigmatization and neglect. On death of parents, they quickly assume greater responsibilities of looking after each other, some even head families on the death of elderly grandparents. They are forced into situations such as prostitution, living on the street to eke out a living, and this exposes them more to the virus, thus providing for a ''vicious cycle of infection'' in a household. They lose everything that once offered them the comfort security and hope for the future.

''There is no credible evidence that the end of the epidemic is in sight. The efforts of the women of Uganda to provide for their own in need have been recognized and appreciated by other international friends and private sector establishments. UWESO’s mandate, operational methods and transparency have provided for the continued support from the donor community, including the Belgian Survival Fund through the International Fund for Agricultural Development.''

- Ms. Pelucy Ntambirweki, Project Manager, UWESO

Adopted orphans are often the first to be denied education when a foster parent cannot afford to educate all of the children in his/her care. One year of primary school costs nearly US$ 145. To make sure that an education is within reach of adopted orphans, the Uweso Development Project (UDP) also provides tuition assistance, which so far has enabled nearly 2,000 young children to attend primary school. For older children (up to 18 years of age), the project provides vocational training. In two or three years, these budding adults gain expertise in trades such as carpentry, masonry, leather work, mechanics, metal fabrication, baking and tailoring. Twenty-two-year-old Joachim Ddumba explains, ''When my parents died of AIDS in 1994, I had to take care of my three brothers. I went through a training programme in mechanics and got two loans to open and expand a radio mechanic and repair shop. Now I can take care of my brothers, and even send them to school.''

Working together, IFAD, the BSF and UWESO and its members have achieved commendable results. Orphans and their foster families have seen the number of daily meals increase as well as the amount of meat that they consume. Not only have they upgraded their homes, but they are also able to keep up with school fees and charges, diversify their enterprises, and buy such ''luxuries'' as blankets, mattresses and clothing. By the end of 1999, almost 400 groups had been trained in and provided with savings and credit services. About 5,000 loans were issued to group members. Over 87 percent of them were women, and the recovery rate has been 90 percent. The UDP has helped UWESO evolve from a relief to a development organization, and one that has a small core of full-time professional staff and a strengthened management, fund-raising and implementation capacity to offer a number of much needed services to support orphans and their families.

Based on the performance of the first project intervention, and of the Savings and Credit program in particular, the BSF has recently approved a second grant of $2.5 million for the consolidation of orphan support and the expansion of microcredit activities to other areas in Uganda.

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The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – a Rome-based specialized agency of the United Nations - was established in 1977 with the unique mandate to combat hunger and rural poverty in the low-income food-deficit regions of the world and to improve the livelihoods of rural poor people on a sustainable basis. IFAD operates as an international financial institution (IFI), and approaches its mandate through financing innovative, cost-effective, and replicable projects that are designed to increase household food security through increasing productivity of on and off farm activities. IFAD was the first IFI to fund the groundbreaking Grameen Bank, the seminal microcredit institution of Bangladesh. IFAD has participated in roughly 300 projects with microcredit components and has committed over $1 billion in financial services and credit to the rural poor. This promotion of microcredit has benefited 20 million people directly and another 40 million people indirectly.

The Belgian Survival Fund (BSF) was created in 1983 by the Belgian Government and endowed with $280 million to combat hunger and poverty. BSF operates primarily through a Joint Program with the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Development Program with IFAD as lead agency.