2002-11-27|11:51 a.m.
Some 12 million children in Africa have been orphaned by AIDS - and that number is rising. As the UN holds its conference on AIDS orphans in Africa, you can read the words of one girl whose life has been transformed by it:
An AIDS orphans story:
�My mother and father died in 1996. My father died in the hospital.
But I saw my mother die here. Because I was a bit older than the others, I looked after her.
I used to cook food for her, wash her clothes, and boil herbs for her.
She told me she was suffering from AIDS, but she didn't tell me how she got it or how to avoid it.
I wish she'd told me more about it. I'd like to know how it's transmitted.�
�When my mother died we suffered so much. There was no food, and there was no one to look after us.
We didn't even have money to buy soap and salt.
We wanted to run away to our other grandparents, but we didn't have transport to go there.�
�I tried to be positive, but it was difficult.
I missed my mother because I loved her so much.
When my mum was here we didn't suffer. We had food and money for buying things.
Some neighbors say bad things about us: 'Those children are so poor; they don't even have relatives. They don't belong. They don't have a clan.'
Some people also call us 'Aids orphans', and they say that maybe our parents infected us.
We don't say anything. At least no one oppresses us.
We're also free to play when we want, and there's nobody telling us to do this or that.�
�A while ago some neighbors came here and asked us to sell them our trees.
We agreed and we sold them.
But they haven't given us the money.
We've tried getting the money from them, but they won't give it.�
�Sometimes people come and steal food from our garden. My grandfather's brother comes and takes the coffee.
He just steals it when the beans are still on the trees.
I don't go to school. I'd like to go, but my grandparents and neighbors told me to stay at home and look after the others.
If I were educated I'd like to be a nurse.
I want to treat other people and heal them from whatever they're suffering from.
I want to do this because when my mother was sick, there was nobody to look after her because we had no money.�
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