 Lydia Kayoyo has no recollection at all of her parents. They died within months of each other when she was only six years old.
Now 21, her only family souvenirs are somedog-earedphotographs given to her by the grandmother who raised her. "I don't remember anything. I have only these. These are how I know what they looked like," she said,leafing throughsome half dozenPolaroid-typefamily snaps. Lydia became one of Uganda's estimated two million Aids orphans in 1989. Her father died first in April, her mother the following September. "There are many like us. But we were lucky, we were so lucky," she added, casting a smiling glance at her 69-year-old grandmother a few feet away. "We had someone to look after us and we were not infected." Lydia, her two brothers and one sister certainly are not alone. A United Nations report released July 13 said that globally the number of children who have lost one or both parents to Aids had reached 15 million and would rise to 18.4 million by the end of the decade. The vast majority are in Africa. "It is a tidal wave of children who have lost one or more of their parents," Carol Bellamy, the executive director of the United Nations children's agency Unicef, told the 15th International Aids Conference being held in Bangkok. "Fifteen million globally, close to 12 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone. The orphan crisis is arguably the cruellest legacy of thispandemicand the worst could still be to come," she added. "Far too many will die." In Africa the job of bringing up the orphaned children is often left to grandparents, ill-equipped financially and in health to do so. It poses enormous additional strains on the fabric of already poor societies. But the job is frequently accepted gladly. When Lydia's father John died, her grandmother Zalinya Makanwagi took in and brought up his four children. At six, Lydia was the eldest. Lydia now works with her grandmother preparing and selling food to patients, visitors and staff at a Taso clinic in downtown Kampala. A few yards away Aids victims too weak to queue for the limited medical support on offer lay and groaned onmakeshiftbeds. (Agencies)
| 莉迪婭·卡尤尤對父母已沒有任何印象。她才六歲時，他們就在幾個月內相繼去世。 現在，她21歲了，而她身邊僅有的家庭紀念品是一些卷了角的照片，那是撫養她的祖母給她的。
“我什么都不記得了。我只有這些東西，通過它們我才知道了父母的樣子。”她一邊說，一邊飛快地翻看著大約半打“拍立得”式家庭快照。 1989年，烏干達艾滋孤兒的數量估計就已達到兩百萬，就在那一年，莉迪婭成了他們中的一員，當年四月，她的父親離開了人世，隨后，九月，她的母親也去世了。 “像我們這樣的人很多，但我們是幸運的，真的很幸運。”她補充道，微笑著瞥了一眼幾英尺外的69歲的祖母：“我們有人照顧，而且沒有被（艾滋病毒）感染。” 莉迪婭有兩個弟弟和一個妹妹，他們確實不孤單。 7月13日，聯合國發布的一份報告說，全球范圍內，艾滋病使1500萬孩子成為孤兒或單親兒童，而且這個數字將在今后十年內上升到1840萬。其中絕大多數孩子在非洲。 在曼谷舉行的第十五屆國際艾滋病大會上，聯合國兒童基金會執行理事卡羅爾·貝拉表示：“孤兒或單親兒童的數量如潮水般上升。” 她還補充說：“全球一共有1500萬這樣的兒童，僅在撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲地區就有近1200萬。孤兒危機無疑是這種流行性疾病遺留下來的最殘酷的后果，而最壞的情況還在后頭，還會有更多人死去。” 在非洲，往往是祖父母承擔起撫養艾滋孤兒的責任，而他們的經濟和健康狀況（對撫養孩子）都是不利的。這給本來就貧窮的社會造成了巨大的額外壓力，而祖父母們通常樂意去做這件事。 莉迪婭的父親約翰去世后，她的祖母扎留婭·馬坎瓦姬收養了他的四個孩子。那時最大的莉迪婭只有六歲。 現在，莉迪婭和祖母一起工作，為坎帕拉市區艾滋病服務組織Taso門診部的病人、訪客和員工準備食物并出售。而就在幾碼之外的地方，艾滋病患者們因為太虛弱而無法排隊等候提供的有限的醫藥援助，躺在臨時搭成的病床上呻吟著。 dog-eared:卷了角的
leafing through:迅速翻閱
Polaroid-type:“拍立得”式
Pandemic:傳染病
makeshift:權宜之計的，湊合的 （中國日報網站譯）
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Updated: 2004-07-15 01:00
