| Abstract: | Abstract In 2003 alone, HIV/AIDS killed more than three million people, of which between 2.2 and 2.4 million were from Sub-Saharan Africa. This disease is having a devastating effect on the previously firm foundations of intergenerational relationships in affected countries. For many nations in Africa, Asia and South America, life has become a mirage, a paradox in which almost everything is overshadowed by the pangs of death. Poverty, HIV/AIDS and, surprisingly, compassion are the combined common causes of death. Consequently, social, ecological, economic, political and educational systems are almost entirely dislocated. Traditions demand that the young ones should outlive their elders. So there is a deliberate effort on the part of the elderly to embrace death in attempting to be compassionate. This paper is an attempt to explore this scenario with the aim of articulating the linkage between poverty and HIV/AIDS, and proposing ways of reducing their impact through intergenerational programming. |
