Some children are multiple orphans. They became orphans through the death of one or both parents. This led to their being incorporated into the family of relatives. In several cases, AIDS claims these relatives also, and once again the child is orphaned. Some children have had repeated experience of this.
Estimates vary as to the number of orphans in Zambia.
One estimate is that 1.656 million children, or more than one-third of those under the age of 15, are orphans who have lost one or both parents. The large proportion of orphaned children gives Zambia the unhappy distinction of being the most orphaned country in the world. Instead of getting smaller, or at least not increasing, the problem of orphanhood is increasing rapidly. Between 1996 and 1998, there was a national increase of over fifteen percent in the number of orphans. This was a very large increase in such a short time.