Protecting Childhood in the AIDS Pandemic: Finding Solutions that Work
Jody Heymann, Lorraine Sherr, and Rachel Kidman
Abstract
Each year, over a quarter of a million children die of AIDS. Another 2 million children currently live with HIV, most in sub-Saharan Africa. Millions more are affected when AIDS enters their families or their communities. Orphans are perhaps the most visible: 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS; 12 million of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. The increasing burden of care due to HIV/AIDS is borne mainly by extended family: First they care for the sick and dying relatives, then they assume responsibility for the children left behind. Today, the extended family cares for ove ... More
Each year, over a quarter of a million children die of AIDS. Another 2 million children currently live with HIV, most in sub-Saharan Africa. Millions more are affected when AIDS enters their families or their communities. Orphans are perhaps the most visible: 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS; 12 million of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. The increasing burden of care due to HIV/AIDS is borne mainly by extended family: First they care for the sick and dying relatives, then they assume responsibility for the children left behind. Today, the extended family cares for over 90% of double orphans. Parents who take on these immense caregiving burdens have less quality time for their own children, fewer financial resources, and greater difficulties securing food and shelter. Thus, children who have parents providing care to AIDS-sick relatives or who share scarce resources with foster children may also experience disadvantage. In communities severely affected by AIDS, traditional safety nets are often overwhelmed by cumulative mortality, teachers are absent from school because of their own illness or that of family members, and basic health facilities are crippled by AIDS care—all of which leave children increasingly vulnerable. The impact is most severe in environments in which government- and state-level support is the weakest; where universal education, health care and social welfare are either not available or only partially available. Protecting Childhood in the AIDS Pandemic will bring together lessons from experts around the world on what has worked, and what needs to be done to transform the outcomes of children of all ages whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Specifically, the book examines which public policies and programs work best to meet the full range of children’s needs, from medical care to social support, and from infancy to adolescence.
Keywords:
HIV/AIDS,
orphans,
vulnerable children,
families,
communities,
public policies,
programs,
social support,
medical care
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199765126 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2012 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199765126.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Jody Heymann, editor
Faculties of Medicine and Arts, McGill University
Lorraine Sherr, editor
Royal Free and University College Medical School, University College London
Rachel Kidman, editor
School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University
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