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Children - 3 Lessons learned from other countries
Lessons learned from Africa and from other countries in the Asia Pacific region suggest that it is vital to integrate services for these children as early on in the epidemic as possible. (15, 16) The consequences of not anticipating the needs of children affected by AIDS can result in stunting, increased malnutrition and child mortality; increased stigma attached to HIV/AIDS; increased child labour, exploitation and trafficking; more children abandoned to fend for themselves in extreme poverty on the streets; increased delinquency and child crime; lower rates of literacy; and a greater number of HIV infections in children due to lack of protection and life skills. Generations of children will not learn the skills necessary to contribute to their own development let alone the development of the country. These are also children who will have watched their parents die, suffered multiple bereavement and possibly violence or abuse, without support. (17) Some of them will never have the opportunity to learn appropriate parenting skills with which to raise their own children.
Over the last 10 years or more, interventions for children have been tried, tested and evaluated and lessons have been learned (see Appendix 5 of this report for more detail on interventions). (18)
Facts
Sometime between the year 2010 and 2020, the global number of children under 15 who have lost their mother or both parents to AIDS will reach 40 million – roughly the size of the population of South Korea.
Dependency ratios which are already high in Cambodia may worsen leading to increasing national poverty through labour and skill shortage and loss of productivity at the household level.
Footnotes
(15) World Bank. "Confronting AIDS: Public Priorities in a Global Epidemic", 1997
(16) Ayieka, By. "From Single Parents to Child-Headed Households: The Case of Children Orphaned by AIDS in Kisumu and Siaya Districts" UNDP Study Paper No. 7
(17) Lyons, Miriam. "The Impact of HIV and AIDS on Children, Families and Communities: Risks and Realities of Childhood during the HIV Epidemic" UNDP HIV and Development Programme Issues Paper No. 30
(18) International HIV/AIDS Alliance. "Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Burkina Faso: First Steps in Community Mobilisation" 2000