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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MEASURE Evaluation Questionnaire for Children Ages 0-9 Years

MEASURE Evaluation, 01 Jul 2014

The questionnaire for children ages 0-9 years is intended for use as one of the OVC survey tools developed by MEASURE Evaluation, with support from the OVC technical working group of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

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MEASURE Evaluation Child Questionnaire Age 0-9.docx

MEASURE Evaluation: Questionnaire for Children Ages 10-17 Years

MEASURE Evaluation, 01 Jul 2014

The questionnaire for children ages 10-17 years is intended for use as one of the OVC survey tools developed by MEASURE Evaluation, with support from the OVC technical working group of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

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MEASURE Evaluation Child Questionnaire Age 10-17.docx

Characteristics of Most Vulnerable Children and Their Guardians That Determine Service Use in a Tanzanian Social Service Agency

Naftali Bernard Ng’ondi - SAGE Open, 01 Jul 2014

The study used pre-existing data on the most vulnerable children’s (MVC’s) and their guardians’ socio-demographic information and the services they received from Pastoral Activities and Services for People With AIDS Dar es Salaam Archdiocese (PASADA) services agency in Tanzania.

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MEASURE Evaluation: French Translation of OVC Survey Tools

MEASURE Evaluation, 01 Jul 2014

The Child, Caregiver & Household Well-being Survey Tools for Orphans & Vulnerable Children Programs have been translated into French for use in francophone countries globally.

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Parenting support in the context of HIV

Lorraine Sherr - Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support, 27 May 2014

This presentation from Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support focuses on parenting interventions for the wellbeing of children and families in an HIV/AIDS context.

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They are not always a burden: Older people and child fostering in Uganda during the HIV epidemic

Susan Kasedde, Aoife M. Doyle, Janet A. Seeley, David A. Ross - Social Science & Medicine, 10 May 2014

This qualitative study examines the role of older people (60 years and above) in fostering decisions for orphans and non-orphans within extended families in a rural Ugandan community heavily affected by HIV.

Perceived food and labor equity and school attendance among Ugandan children living in kin care

Roby, J., Shaw, S., & High-George, L., 01 Apr 2014

For this study conducted in and near Kampala, Uganda, 518 youth (8 to 18 years old) and their caregivers were interviewed individually, examining the association between relatedness and perceived food and work equity, and school attendance.

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Measuring the Determinants of Childhood Vulnerability

UNICEF, 01 Mar 2014

This study by UNICEF sought to identify key determinants of vulnerability among children –including those affected by HIV and AIDS – that can contribute to developing an improved global measure of vulnerable children in the context of HIV and AIDS. Data from the most recent available household surveys at the time of analysis was used from 11 countries – Cambodia, Central African Republic, Haiti, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe – were pooled.

International Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014 Report

UN General Assembly – Report of the Secretary General , 12 Feb 2014

This report was prepared in February 2014 pursuant to General Assembly resolution 65/234, in which the Assembly called for an operational review of the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development

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Drumming Together for Change: A Child’s Right to Quality Care in Sub-Saharan Africa

SOS Children’s Villages, Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland, University of Malawi, 2014

This report is based on a synthesis of eight assessments of the implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (“the Guidelines”) in Benin, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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