Children Affected by HIV and AIDS

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is having a devastating impact on the well-being of children, particularly in those countries with the highest HIV prevalence rates in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, and parts of Asia. The virus affects children in multiple ways; they may lose one or both parents and other family members, or become infected with the disease.

Aside from the physical and psychosocial stress associated with the onset of the disease itself and the experience of loss of loved ones, children affected by HIV/AIDS may additionally be subjected to the burden of caring for others, stigma, discrimination, exploitation, abuse, financial hardships, and are less likely to attend school. The social and economic effects of the disease means that areas with high AIDS-related mortality are less able to provide traditional family and community care, protection and basic services for its children.

Children with HIV-positive parents are at a greater risk of being orphaned, abandoned, removed by social services, placed into foster or institutional care, becoming homeless, or left to head households on their own. Orphaned children infected with the virus often have more difficulty obtaining care. Families and communities have rallied to provide kinship care to the large majority of the children who have lost their parents, however families and communities are struggling to cope, physically and financially, with the numbers of children involved. Despite international recognition of the damaging effects of institutional care and its high costs, institutional care has proliferated, often supported by external groups wanting to help. Far too little has been done in such countries to systematically strengthen and support HIV/AIDS-affected families and families caring for orphans, or to develop family-and community-based care for children without adequate family care.

Children should be cared for by their immediate and extended families wherever possible, with support services put in place to avoid abandonment. Regulated kinship, foster care, and local adoption should be developed for children without close relatives. Young people and communities should be provided with information on HIV/AIDS to avoid infection. Adequate medical treatment is needed to enable infected parents to live longer and to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child.

The literature in this section includes background information on countries and projects tackling the crises, including statistics, policy papers, implementation projects, and care options for children orphaned or infected by HIV/AIDS.

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Faith Based Orphan Care: Addressing Child-Oriented Goals and Child Rights in HIV/AIDS- Affected Communities

Madeleine A. Currie and S. Jody Heymann - Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1,, 01 Mar 2010

This article explores how established faith-based organizations that work with children affected by HIV/AIDS address the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Millennium Development Goals in their service practices and what challenges they face.

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Interagency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and Separated Children: FRENCH VERSION

Interagency Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated Children , 19 Feb 2010

The Guidelines from the IAWG provide some of the strongest direction for ensuring emergency efforts protect family unity and avoid child-family separation. Where family unity can not be preserved, these guidelines instruct on tracing and family reunification, care arrangements, durable arrangements, special issues related to refugee children, and promotion of children’s rights.

http://www.crin.org/docs/Inter-agency%20Guiding%20Principles%20on%20Unaccompanied%20and%20Separated%20Children_French.pdf

The Way We Care: A Guide for Managers of Programs Serving Vulnerable Children and Youth

Family Health International, 19 Feb 2010

Manual aims to develop awareness, reinforce knowledge, and assist those designing, implementing, or managing programs for children and youth affected by poverty, HIV and AIDS, and other diseases.

The Road to Vienna: Family-centred services for children affected by HIV and AIDS

Linda Richter, 11 Feb 2010

Presentation by Linda Richter at the CCABA & IAS for the Meeting on Children and Especially Marginalized Populations on the 10-11th February 2010 in Geneva.

Global Report: UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic 2010

UNAIDS, 2010

This report, produced by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS provides an update on the global AIDS epidemic as well as information on HIV prevention and treatment, HIV/AIDS as it relates to human rights and gender, HIV investments, HIV/AIDS estimates and data, and country progress indicators and data. Particularly relevant to children’s care are the sections on children orphaned due to the loss of one or both parents to HIV/AIDS.

Children and AIDS: Fourth Stocktaking Report

Unite for Children; Unite Against AIDS, 20 Dec 2009

Offers updates, authoritative data, evidence and recommendations on key areas including prevention of mother-to-child transmission, paediatric care and treatment, preventing infection among adolescents and young people, protection, care and support for children affected by HIV and AIDS, programme monitoring and evaluation.

The 2009 Progress Report for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS

UNICEF , 03 Dec 2009

The latest in a series of reports produced by UNICEF on the status of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). This is an easy-to-use reference document for policymakers and key stakeholders who work in the response for orphans and vulnerable children. It presents the 17 indicators described in the Guide to Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Response for Children Orphaned and Made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS

Life in institutional care: the voices of children in a residential facility in Botswana

Gillian Morantz & Jody Heymann, 02 Dec 2009

As a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there are now more than 12 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of these children have been absorbed into their extended families.

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Legally recognising child-headed households through a rights-based approach: The case of South Africa

Hye-Young Lim - University of Pretoria, 01 Dec 2009

This doctoral thesis by Hye-Young Lim examines the laws around the recognition of child-headed households in South Africa, particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS.

U.S. Government and Partners: Working Together on a Comprehensive, Coordinated and Effective Response to Highly Vulnerable Children

USG Secretariat for Orphans and Vulnerable Children , 01 Dec 2009

Provides global estimates of the number of highly vulnerable children; a summary of United States Government (USG) assistance programs for highly vulnerable children; a summary of progress coordinating the response among USG agencies; key strategic issues and opportunities; priorities for 2009–2010 and beyond; and a summary of the results and achievements of USG assistance