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This report presents the preliminary findings from an ongoing project undertaken by 4Children that seeks to identify key opportunities to incorporate violence prevention and response interventions within priority PEPFAR Program Areas at clinical and community levels. The initial focus is on HIV testing and services (HTS) and pediatric care and treatment — a priority identified at an introductory meeting with selected members of the OVC and Gender Technical Working Group Advisors held in July 2015. The findings presented here draw on conclusions from the introductory meeting, a desk review and…
This booklet from SOS Children’s Villages International was created for young people to explain in a simple manner the main points of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2009. The booklet helps its young audience think about the principles of alternative care and what these mean for children and families in different situations. By recommending and instructing actions children and youth can take under each principle, the booklet encourages its audience to advocate for adequate care and protection for…
This handbook, Moving Forward: Implementation of the ‘Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children,’ was developed by CELSIS under an initiative of the Working Group on Children without Parental Care of the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the project’s Steering Committee which included representatives from ISS, SOS Children’s Villages International, Family for Every Child, ATD Fourth World, Better Care Network, RELAF, and UNICEF.
It is designed as a tool for legislators, policy-makers, and all…
AIDS is fundamentally a family disease: infections run through families, families carry the burdens of infection, and growing evidence suggests that family-centred approaches to prevention and treatment are particularly effective.
It is therefore not enough to merely provide antiretroviral drugs to mothers and children: it is critical that treatment and care for children are integrated into the broader context of family-support schemes, write Linda Richter et al, guest editors in a special issue of the Journal of the International AIDS Society, published online on Thursday, 24 June 2010…
Protecting children affected by AIDS requires strengthening national and community-level responses for all vulnerable children. Governments, civil society and their partners can make real progress towards this goal by enhancing social protection, legal protection and justice and alternative care. This work must be underpinned by efforts to address the silence and stigma that allow both HIV- and AIDS-related discrimination, abuse and exploitation of children to continue. It also requires strengthening government authorities that hold the bulk of responsibility for protection, to more…
Outlines how to strengthen social protection, legal protection, and alternative care for children at country level. Contains specific actions that governments and NGO's can take to decrease the vulnerability of children affected by AIDS and respond to instances of abuse, exploitation and neglect. This is the French Translation of the Executive Summary.
Also available in English and Spanish.
The multi-faceted nature of child vulnerability–whether due to such epidemics as HIV/AIDS, conflict, natural disasters, extreme poverty, or a host of other contextual factors–is reflected in the wide spectrum of professional disciplines that have mobilized to address it. Among these, economic strengthening is gaining in importance and prominence, with few experts working to reduce child vulnerability in doubt that poverty is a major contributor to the challenges they face. Unfortunately, very few specialists feel comfortable working at the intersection of these disciplines, which have…
The past six years have seen increasing engagement by the international community on HIV, AIDS and children. One of the eight Millennium Development Goals set by governments in 2000 relates directly to HIV and AIDS. In 2001, at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, governments pledged to protect children affected by the disease. Global commitment to combat the impact of HIV and AIDS on children was again outlined in 2002 in ‘A World Fit for Children’, the outcome document of the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children. More recently, in June 2006, the UN…
HIV/AIDS is a major cause of infant and childhood mortality and morbidity in Africa. In children under five years of age, HIV/AIDS now accounts for 7.7% of mortality worldwide. AIDS already accounts for a rise of more than 19% in infant mortality and a 36% rise in under five mortality. Together with factors such as declining immunisation, HIV/AIDS is threatening recent gains in infant and child survival and health.
Yet, for the most part, HIV infection in children is preventable. In industrialised countries in North America and Europe, paediatric HIV infection has largely been controlled.…
The sheer number of orphaned and vulnerable children is overwhelming. Many well-meaning donors are funding orphanages as a solution to the problem. However, orphanages are expensive and can only reach small numbers of children. Research by the World Bank in Tanzania, for example, found the cost of operating orphanages to be six times higher than the cost of caring for children in the community. Most importantly, orphanages separate children from family and community life. They often fail to meet children’s developmental needs and do not prepare them for adult life in the larger society. While…