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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UNITE for Children UNITE Against AIDS

UNITE for Children UNITE Against AIDS, 01 Sep 2009

Short video illustrating the ways social protection safeguards children and their families – including those affected by AIDS – at every level from communities to entire countries and beyond.

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Advancing Child Sensitive Social Protection

DFID, Help Age, Hope and Homes for Children, IDS, ILO, ODI, Save the Children UK, UNDP, UNICEF and World Bank., 01 Sep 2009

Joint statement among UN agencies and NGO partners to build greater consensus on the importance of child-sensitive social protection.

Guidance Document for Developing and Operationalizing a National Monitoring and Evaluation System for the Protection, Care and Support of OVC

Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group of the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Children and HIV and AIDS, 01 Sep 2009

Provides global guidance on specific indicators to monitor and evaluate the national responses to orphans and vulnerable children

HIV/AIDS, declining family resources and the community safety net

Jody Heymann and Rachel Kidman - AIDS Care, 01 Aug 2009

This study uses recent data from published studies in sub-Saharan Africa to illustrate deficits and document community responses for children who have lost parents to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

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When the Safety Net Fails: Children in West and Central Africa and the Risk of HIV Infection

Plan West Africa, 01 Mar 2009

Study investigating the psychosocial impact of different high risk situations in West and Central Africa such as trafficking, ethnic cleansing, armed conflict or parental loss.

Country Care Review: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Better Care Network, 10 Feb 2009

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

Home Truths: Facing the Facts on Children, AIDS, and Poverty

Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS, 01 Feb 2009

Evaluates a number of fundamental misperceptions that have undermined the global response to children affected by the epidemic, and sets out evidence on how to better respond to their needs.

Promoting Synergies between Child Protection and Social Protection: West and Central Africa

UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa, 01 Feb 2009

Focuses on children’s vulnerabilities and risks related to an absence of protection from violence, abuse and neglect, and the ways in which measures to address such vulnerabilities and risks can be more effectively integrated into social protection policy frameworks in the West and Central Africa region.

Life Improvement, Life Satisfaction and Care Arrangement Among AIDS Orphans in Rural Henan, China

Qun Zhao, Xiaoming Li, Xiaoyi Fang, Bonita Stanton, Guoxiang Zhao, Junfeng Zhao, and Liying Zhang, 20 Jan 2009

This study aims to compare perceived life improvement and life satisfaction among double orphans in 3 main care arrangements (group home, AIDS orphanage, kinship care) in 2 rural Chinese counties.

Violence prevention: the evidence

WHO and Liverpool John Moores University, 2009

This report brings together an eight-part series of briefings on the evidence for interventions to prevent interpersonal and self-directed violence. By spotlighting evidence for the effectiveness of interventions, the series provides clear directions for how violence prevention funders, policy makers and programme implementers can boost the impact of their violence prevention efforts.