The charity Save the Children today called for higher priority to be given to the plight of AIDS orphans by international donors, and for them to follow through on last year’s G8 summit commitment to `proper support` for children and families affected by HIV. Save the Children says that donors need to take seriously the UNAIDS Global Task team recommendation that $6.4 billion should be devoted to vulnerable children over the next three years alone.
To date only the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States have made specific commitments to funding support for orphaned children and HIV-positive parents, and few severely affected countries have welfare systems that provide cash grants to families if the main carer is sick.
Mothers and children need more than just treatment, say advocates
Save the Children highlights the burden of care that is falling upon children of HIV-positive mothers and the accumulating disadvantages that affect AIDS orphans in a report published today, Missing mothers: meeting the needs of children affected by AIDS.
Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children’s Chief Executive said: "The AIDS pandemic robs millions of children of their childhood as well as their mothers. Children are caring for their mothers, missing school, and having to work because their mothers are too sick to look after them. Incredibly, the impact of HIV and AIDS on children is still being ignored”.
”To date, any recognition of children’s needs has focused on what happens after their parents have died. However, to truly make a difference it is critical that we support children living with sick parents as well as children orphaned by AIDS.”
Poverty and hunger need to be addressed by improved social welfare provision of the kind taken for granted in rich nations. Countries need to be supported to develop and deliver formal safety net mechanisms, says Save the Children.
The UK Department for International Development argues that sustainable and predictable aid flows associated with AIDS and achievement of the Millenium Develeopment Goals offer an `unprecedented opportunity` to target help at those most in need, and cites the example of Zambia, where a pilot programme giving a $6 per month cash grant to the poorest 10% of households resulted in an increase in daily food consumption and an 8% decrease in the proportion of underweight children.
However, moving towards safety nets that catch AIDS orphans and vulnerable children will take time, and in the meantime children will also need legal protections such as rights for mothers and children to inherit property, land and assets.
Continuity of education will also be important. Save the Children is piloting programmes that target vouchers to the poorest children that can be exchanged for the basic tools needed for school attendance – exercise books, pens and clothing.
These sort of incentives, DFID suggests, can be tied to school attendance or utilisation of health care services.
However, as Manuel, a homeless 14 year old AIDS orphan from Mozambique comments in the Save the Children report: “It’s not enough though. We’re still facing problems because we don’t have enough food or clothes. My brother and I work on farms in the community. We earn about 20-30p in a day, and we get work about three days in a week. We don’t have anything to eat in the middle of the day.”
Another critical step is removal of user fees for health care, says Save the Children, and involvement of local communities in meeting the needs of vulnerable children. To ensure that money is reaching those who need it most, the charity says that donors and national governments should involve community-based organisations in national planning and decisions about local service delivery.
Orphans and vulnerable children toolkit
The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and Family Health International have developed an online toolkit for programming to support orphans and vulenrable children affected by HIV/AIDS. This CD-ROM contains an electronic library of over 600 resources on supporting orphans and vulnerable children. These have been gathered from a wide range of organisations, drawing on years of experience to create a ‘toolkit’ for others to use.
This toolkit is for use by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governmental organisations, community-based organisations (CBOs) and individuals working with orphans and other vulnerable children. It is also available on-line: www.ovcsupport.net. The on-line toolkit is regularly updated with new information and resources.
This toolkit is for use by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governmental organisations, community-based organisations (CBOs) and individuals working with orphans and other vulnerable children. The on-line toolkit is regularly updated with new information and resources.
Further information
UK Department for International Development briefing note, February 2006. Using social transfers to improve human development. (click here to download pdf format briefing paper)