Malawi's Orphaned Children

MPHANDULA, MALAWI - AUGUST 21: Ethel Dailesi, age 44, walks out of her bedroom as her daughter Rebecca Masawo, age 10, plays cards on August 21, 2006 in Mphandula village, about 30 miles outside Lilongwe, Malawi. Ethel was diagnosed with HIV/Aids in 2004 and has been on antiretroviral drugs since December 2005. She has just taken her medicine. She is often sick and her two daughters take care of her. Her children cook and clean for her. The girls attend a school nearby but they usually stay home when their mother is too sick. Mphandula is a poor village in Malawi, without electricity or clean water. Nobody owns a car or a mobile phone. Most people live on farming. About 7000 people reside in the village and the chief estimates that there are about five-hundred orphans. Many have been affected by HIV/Aids and many of the children are orphaned. A foundation started by Madonna has decided to build an orphan center in the village through Consol Homes, a Malawi based organization. Raising Malawi is investing about 3 million dollars in the project and Madonna is scheduled to visit the village in October 2006. Malawi is a small landlocked country in Southern Africa without any natural resources. Many people are affected by the Aids epidemic. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and has about 1 million orphaned children. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)