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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Vulnerability Mitigation through the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries

Kingsley Chigbu - African Journal of Social Work, 26 Feb 2019

This paper analyzes the United States of America (U.S). House Resolution 1409 (H.R.1409) also referred to as the “Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act of 2005 (AOVC).”

Qualitative exploration of HIV-related stigma and the psychosocial well-being of children orphaned by AIDS

Zeenat Yassin, Charlene Jennifer Erasmus, Josè Frantz - Global Social Welfare, 14 Feb 2019

This study explored children orphaned by AIDS perceptions and experiences of HIV-related stigma and how it has affected their psychosocial well-being.

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Exploring the Relationship Between Foster Care Experiences and HIV Risk Behaviors Among a Sample of Homeless Former Foster Youth

Amanda Yoshioka-Maxwell & Eric Rice - AIDS and Behavior, 04 Feb 2019

In the current study, data were collected from 184 youth at drop-in centers in Los Angeles using behavioral health questionnaires to explore the relationships between specific aspects of foster care experiences and engagement in HIV-risk behaviors.

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Effects of early adversity on the brain: Larger-volume anterior cingulate cortex in AIDS orphans

Peiying Zuo , Yinan Wang , Jia Liu, Siyuan Hu, Guoxiang Zhao, Lijie Huang, Danhua Lin - PLoS One, 14 Jan 2019

This study used magnetic resonance imaging to compare adolescent AIDS orphans reared in institutions with a sex- and age-matched group of healthy adolescents reared in families in China using a voxel-based morphometry analysis.

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Resource Compendium for Integration of Early Childhood Development into Programs for Children Orphaned or Made Vulnerable by HIV (OVC)

Beth Bradford - CRS, Coordinating Comprehensive Care for Children (4Children), 10 Jan 2019

Written for USAID and PEPFAR implementing partners, with a focus on OVC practitioners, this is a user-friendly compendium of current resources, information and job aids for early childhood care, stimulation and education.

Lessons learnt from the child protection component of the Global Fund’s Young Women and Girls Programme in ten districts in South Africa

Röhrs S, Delany A & Mathews S - Children's Institute University of Cape Town, 2019

This briefing paper reports on the lessons learnt from a process evaluation of the child protection component of the Global Fund’s Young Women and Girls (YWG) programme, a multi-pronged HIV prevention programme targeting young women and girls implemented in 10 districts in South Africa.

The National Alternative Care Policy for Children in Sri Lanka

Ministry of Woman and Child Affairs and Dry Zone Development Department of Probation and Child Care Services, 2019

Sri Lanka's National Policy on the Alternative Care of Children outlines a comprehensive range of alternative care options and encourages the reforming of all formal structures that provide at-home and out-of-home services for children deprived of care and protection or at risk of being so. This policy also extends to children under care of the Juvenile Justice System. It provides policy solutions to programming for children at risk of family separation and facing deprivations such as child abuse, neglect, child labor, poverty, addiction, imprisonment, human trafficking, mental and physical disabilities, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, orphanhood, abandonment and displacement etc. The policy also takes into consideration and encompasses provisions to children who are forced to live and work on streets.

Culturally Responsive Social Work Practice in Uganda: A Review of Selected Innovative and Indigenous Models

Ronald Luwangula, Janestic M. Twikirize, Justus Twesigye and Stanley Kitimbo - Social Work Practice in Africa: Indigenous and Innovative Approaches, 2019

This chapter from Social Work Practice in Africa: Indigenous and Innovative Approaches showcases examples of home-grown indigenous and innovative models of social work practice in Uganda, including local models for addressing the HIV/AIDS orphan crisis in Rakai district.

Community-based care of children affected by AIDS in Swaziland: a gender-aware analysis

Michelle R. Brear, Pinky N. Shabangu, Karin Hammarberg, Jane Fisher and Helen Keleher - Primary Health Care Research & Development, 06 Nov 2018

The aim of this study from Primary Health Care Research & Development was to examine the effects and gender dimensions of providing voluntary, community-based, care-related labour for children affected by AIDS.

Country Care Review: South Africa

Better Care Network, 23 Oct 2018

This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.