• In the next 10 years, 40 million Sub-Saharan African children will become orphans.
• One-fifth to one-third of all children under the age of 15 will be orphans this year.
• Almost 27% of primary, 13% of Junior Secondary School; 4% of Senior Secondary School, and 4% of Tertiary Schools students are not yet aware of AIDS.**
• The early age at which many students initiate sexual activity? 6-10 years of age.**
• Youth are most affected by HIV/AIDS. In the first quarter of 1996 the estimated number of infected youths accounted for 56% of the reported cases of HIV signs and symptoms (GoB, 1997).**
• About 28,000 children aged 0-15 years were estimated to be living with HIV.**
• Results from surveys show that 15.3% of the primary school students (Grades 1-7) in selected schools are sexually active. This percentage increases with age. For secondary school students, more than 30% of students have had sex before compared to 34.2% of junior secondary school students. For senior secondary schools 55% of the students are sexually active while for the tertiary institutions 92.5% are sexually active.**
• By the age of 19, females (80%) are more sexually active than males (67%).**
• Most youths find out about sex from their friends, teachers, rather than parents. Strangely enough, students feel that the primary responsibility for their sexual education is with their parents.**
• The myth that AIDS can be cured by having sex with a virgin exposes girls as young as six to rape.**
• Gifts, money and promises of marriage lure teenage girls into sexual relationships that put them at risk.**
• There is a great need for intense sex education and programs promoting abstinence and safer sex to be designed for younger people generally and for young women in particular.*
• The number of those who died of AIDS during 2001 stood at 26,000. Orphaned children under the age of 15 in 2001 were estimated at around 69,000.**

*Source - The National AIDS Coordinating Agency - Botswana 2003 2nd Generation HIV/AIDS Surveillance

** Source - Baseline Study Report - Botswana Institute For Development Policy Analysis, August 2003

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