Aid Agency Combats The Effect Of Poverty

MOZAMBIQUE - JUNE 30: Children smile as they gather together June 30, 2005 in Mozambique. Since Mozambique's 15-year civil war ended in 1992, the country has made a strong recovery, but it has suffered setbacks such as severe floods in 2000 and 2001, followed by two years of drought in 2002 and 2003. These disasters have had a huge impact and led to widespread food shortages and an increase in outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera, measles and meningitis. About 13 percent of babies die before their first birthday, 20 percent of children die before the age of five and 48 percent of the country's children are chronically malnourished. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is having a devastating effect on families, many of whom suffer from poverty and a lack of basic services, with tens of thousands of children orphaned, many of them also HIV positive or already ill with AIDS. (Photo by Graeme Robertson/Getty Images)