On October 18, the House approved, 415-9, a bill (H.R. 1409) that would provide assistance for orphans and other vulnerable children in developing countries. The House International Relations Committee approved the measure on September 15 (see The Source, 9/16/05).
Explaining that there are an estimated 143 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin American, and the Caribbean, bill sponsor Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) stated, “The rapid growth of HIV and AIDS especially in Africa has dramatically impacted the number of children who are newly becoming orphans. According to UNAIDS, today there are over 15 million children living as orphans due to HIV and AIDS, again, the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa. By 2010, there will be 25 million children. Today, every 14 seconds another child is orphaned by AIDS. With parents dying at an alarming rate, children are left without food, shelter, education, or protection. We actually saw children raising children, 10-year olds raising siblings.” She added, “The global orphan crisis is a profound humanitarian disaster that will be felt for decades to come. This bill seeks to address the growing global problem of orphans and vulnerable children by providing assistance to support basic care through community, school food programs, increased primary school enrollment, employment training, protection of inheritance rights, psychosocial support, and treatment for children living with HIV and AIDS.”
Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) said that “the size and scope of the problems facing orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world is daunting. The United States provides significant levels of assistance through the good work of the United States Agency for International Development and other U.S. agencies to provide much-needed help to these children. However, these children deserve the best effort of the United States, and the American people expect the same. We can do better. American aid to help these children is provided by a patchwork of programs from various offices within USAID and across U.S. agencies with little overall coordination. H.R. 1409 will increase the coherence and cohesion, as well as the effectiveness, of our multifaceted approach without disrupting the flow of aid to help these children through existing mechanisms. This legislation requires the Secretary of State to designate a senior officer, likely within USAID, to be a special advisor for assisting orphans and vulnerable children. This special advisor will ensure that our various assistance streams within our government will be complementary to each other, that aid strategies developed in Washington and our field missions are informed with the best data, analysis, and practices to help these children, and that someone in our government is conducting regular monitoring and evaluation of our efforts so we can continually improve the effectiveness of these programs.”
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) has sponsored an identical bill (S. 350) in the Senate.
