Message from the chairperson

Dear conference delegates, supporters and friends

The conference steering committee would like to welcome delegates to the 2012 Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Africa Conference. 

As highlighted by Nelson Mandela:  “There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children” and so we look forward to spending these few days together deliberating on improving the health and well being of our children especially those marginalized by orphan hood, poverty, abuse, and HIV/AIDS.

Whilst progress has been made over the past year in achieving the key outcomes of the ‘Every Woman Every Child’ campaign spearheaded by UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon as part of the Millennium Development Goals strategy, we still have a way to go. This conference affords us the opportunity to come together and make a valuable contribution to strategies for realizing the Millennium Development Goals for the countries of Africa.  We are encouraged by the global commitments to increasing investment in maternal and child health and we gather at this conference to re-affirm our commitment to position ourselves to harness this window of opportunity. 

We encourage delegates to look beyond ‘reactive’ approaches to the care of the orphaned and vulnerable child and look for proactive, creative solutions that start right at the beginning viz. the young prospective mother.

We look forward to a thought-provoking conference with the active participation of delegates.  There will be ample opportunity for invited speakers and those who will submit abstracts to highlight the needs and challenges of our orphans and vulnerable children.  Equally important we look forward to hearing from organisations who have already started looking at workable solutions and innovative approaches to investing in the health and well being of the special children of Africa.  We plan to facilitate time for lively discussions and interactions between delegates through our round table discussions and other activities.  We trust that at the end of the conference we will be successful in developing plans for integration of government and private/NGO initiatives to achieve well defined goals with measurable outputs. 

The task ahead is huge but can be made easier as we involve all sectors such as government, faith based organizations, the private sector and development agencies in this partnership.  And so we welcome delegates from all these arenas to the 2012 OVC Conference and look forward to your insights and commitment to the children of Africa.  We will not turn a blind eye.

Anna Coutsoudis