ABSTRACT
The fate of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has received increasing attention in recent years, mainly as a result of the HIV-TB epidemic. According to the latest estimates from UNICEF (2010), as many as 56 million children under the age of 18 had lost one or both parents in 2009; this represents 14 percent of the population aged 0-17 years in the region. About 26 percent of these orphans had lost one or both parents to AIDS (UNICEF 2010).
