The Need For LHI

The AIDS Crisis

  • Zambia is a Sub-Saharan African nation in the center of the AIDS crisis. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly three-fourths of the worldwide population of people living with HIV/AIDS.
  • 1 in every 10 births will result in death due to AIDS or malaria.
  • In 1990, fewer than 1 million Sub-Saharan African children under the age of 15 had lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. By 2001, this number had increased more than tenfold, leaving 11 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS.
  • By 2010, approximately 20 million Sub-Saharan African children will have lost at least one parent due to HIV/AIDS, bringing the total number of orphans in the region to 42 million.

The Children

  • About half of all orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa are between 10-14 years old, about 35% are 5-9, and about 15% of the the orphans are ages 0-4. Extended families have assumed responsibility for more than 90% of these millions of young orphaned children.
  • Nearly 60% of orphaned Zambian children had been separated from their siblings; nearly 4 out of 5 saw their brothers and sisters less than once a month.

Their Future

  • The average life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa is only 35 years.
  • We want to bring hope to Africa's seemingly hopeless future starting with the young orphans in the nation of Zambia, raising them to be educated, God-loving, contributing members of society who can help lead their country and world to a brighter tomorrow.