BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Nowhere is the AIDS pandemic more pronounced than on the African continent. CNN medical correspondent Eileen O'Connor now on the challenges facing African nations in fighting the disease and the difficulties of providing relief.</s>EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 2.2 million people died from AIDS in Africa in 1999, leaving behind 10.4 million children under 15, many now orphaned, with both parents victims of this pandemic.</s>ZAINABU SALEH MSOMOKA, GRANDMOTHER (through translator): The young generation are leaving behind their kids and it is a big battle for the old people like us.</s>O'CONNOR: Zainabu Saleh Msomoka's eldest son and daughter-in-law died, leaving her with four children to care for. Selling off her government food allotment gave her $1 to start a roadside stand selling roasted sweet potatoes. She, like so many other women in Africa, says her savior from starvation came in the form of a $65 micro-credit loan she used to expand her business to a restaurant, enabling her to feed her grandchildren.</s>MOSOMOKA (through translator): I wouldn't have been able to educate them. I wouldn't be able to feed them.</s>O'CONNOR: The Foundation for International Community Assistance, or FINCA, has provided over $40 million and says these loans are now proving crucial in the battle against the spread of HIV, the virus that causes</s>AIDS. LAWRENCE YANOVITCH, FINCA INTERNATIONAL: As long as these women are really desperately poor, they don't have time to come and listen to the education messages.</s>O'CONNOR: Critics say these programs only work if well administered and only if partnered with access to better health care and AIDS-education. Still, the United States Congress may fund an additional $50 million for such programs. Administrators say a repayment rate of 98 percent and the benefits to African economies make this an investment that pays off. Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Washington.
Africa Faces Serious Challenges in Battling AIDS Epidemic