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Children - 3.1 Lessons about the needs of children affected by AIDS
At the family level, loss of family members due to HIV/AIDS, changes in household and family structure, family dissolution, lost income, impoverishment, lost labour, grief and stress (19,20) have all resulted in creating an environment where it is difficult to care adequately for children's needs.
Children orphaned by AIDS have been shown to be more vulnerable than children orphaned in other ways. Girls have been shown to be more vulnerable than boys. (21)
The impact of HIV/AIDS on children has been shown invariably to be:
- loss of family and identity
- psychological distress
- increased malnutrition
- loss of health care, including immunisation
- increased demands for labour
- fewer opportunities for schooling and education
- loss of inheritance
- forced migration
- homelessness, vagrancy, starvation and crime
- exposure to HIV infection
Fact
At the community level poverty increases, infrastructure deteriorates, the labour pool is reduced and the community has even fewer resources for self-help.
Footnotes
(19) UNICEF "Children Orphaned by AIDS" 1999
(20) Donahue, Jill. Williamson, John. "Community Mobilization to Address the Impacts of AIDS: A Review of the COPE II Program in Malawi for the Displaced Children and Orphans Fund" 1998
(21) Meegan, Michael. Conroy, Ronan. Tomkins, Andrew. "Identifying emerging needs among AIDS orphans in Kenya". Presentation for the Annual Scientific Review, University of Nairobi, 2000