Title:
From the individual to the system : the coming of age of programmes for orphans and vulnerable children
Authors:
Webb, D.
Year:
2007
Serial number:
2
Journal:
Exchange on HIV/AIDS, sexuality and gender
Pages:
1
-
4
ISSN:
[1871-7551]
Language:
eng
Subject:
Health and Nutrition
Keywords:
HIV and AIDS
,
children
,
policy
Abstract:
This issue of Exchange magazine mainly focuses on programmes that strengthen the livelihoods of children affected or infected by HIV. The first article describes the development from exclusive attention being paid to ‘AIDS orphans’, now considered a highly stigmatizing term, to a focus on all vulnerable children living in societies highly affected by HIV and AIDS. The impacts of HIV and AIDS on children continue to evolve and the incidence of AIDS-related orphaning and its associated vulnerabilities have not yet stabilized. In sub-Saharan Africa, the most highly affected region in the world, the number of orphans from all causes is likely to top 50 million within the coming few years. Highly affected communities in southern Africa especially are seeing between one third and one half of their children losing one or both parents. The dynamism inherent in the HIV epidemic fuels an associated rapid evolution of the policy and programme responses aimed at curbing the impacts of AIDS on communities, families and children. The over-arching policy response has broadened dramatically in its scope in the last sixteen years, since the first UNICEF-hosted meeting on ‘AIDS and orphans’ in Italy in 1991. This article will outline this evolution, which resulted in the drive for systemic responses addressing all vulnerable children in AIDS-affected societies, and the need to better address the non-material aspects of the impacts of AIDS on families.
Organization:
KIT - Royal Tropical Institute
Region:
Africa South of Sahara
Category:
Policy
Right:
© 2007 KIT
Document type:
E-article
File:
122913.pdf