Arc-en-Ciel consists of three programmes:
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A residential care facility (shelter) for children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS;
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A Community Outreach Programme to provide training and home-based-care to families affected by HIV/AIDS; and
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A Community Mobilization Programme to share information with, and tap into the resources of, the broader community.
The way in which Arc-en-Ciel has integrated its three programmes has important implications for:
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Caring for children outside of their extended families – in particular by using members of their community programmes as host families;
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Building social tolerance for people living with HIV/AIDS – for example, by exposing community members to HIV-positive children and adults; and
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Sustainability – particularly by mobilizing volunteers within one programme to support another, and by sharing resources between programmes.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of this study is that it provides some answers to the question: What happens to programmes for children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS when anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) become freely available? Arc-en-Ciel provides an opportunity to explore this question through its community outreach and residential care programmes.
The study found striking, positive differences in the attitudes of Arc-en-Ciel’s staff and clients, and in their organizational focus, since the introduction of ARVs. Contrary to expectations, the introduction of ARVs did not force the organization to focus more on medical issues, and less on socio-economic interventions.
Today, Arc-en-Ciel is more concerned with coping with life than with coping with death. And no issue emerges more clearly, in this context, than the need to overcome stigma and discrimination against people living in the shadow of HIV/AIDS, which is precisely where Arc-en-Ciel is focusing its abundant energy and enthusiasm.
©UNICEF
