The parents, carers and communities of children affected by HIV and AIDS need the skills, resources and attitudes to support them to prevent and respond to HIV and to realise their potential.
For example, an unborn or new-born child needs a mother/father/carer with the knowledge, funds and support to ensure they receive the right nurturing and medical care to prevent the vertical transmission of HIV, stimulation to grow their curiosity and insight, and nutrition to develop healthily (early childhood development). Similarly, children need help from family and friends in order to access and stay on HIV treatment and to build resilience against adversity, shocks, early sexual debut and sexual violence.
Most often, a child can only attend school or access any kind of economic or social support if it is made freely available by the government and if they have a parent/carer to champion their development and wellbeing. Since ,in very low resource settings, it is often local people who design and run the clinics, schools and other services necessary to prevent and respond to HIV and its impact on children, people in the child’s own community need the positive attitudes and resources necessary to make these effective for them and their families. Moreover, a child’s peers and community leaders are vital in tackling the stigma facing many children affected by AIDS.
Achieving this will require collaboration between those working on HIV, social protection, education, health and broader development to design programmes that strengthen families and communities as a whole, and to measure their success, in part, by the extent to which they prevent and respond to HIV and its impact on children.
Key reading:
- Donor Policy Report: How much funding is going to children and adolescents, where, on what and what are the gaps?
- Harnessing Social Protection to Reach All Children highlights the winners of the Reaching All Children Challenge, which was launched by the Coalition and ViiV Healthcare’s Positive Action in an effort to gather evidence demonstrating how social protection protects and supports vulnerable children and adolescents in testing, treatment, and care.
- COVID-19 Policy Briefing: Prioritising Children, Adolescents and Caregivers Affected by HIV in the COVID-19 response.
- Tackle Exclusion: End AIDS in Children, an advocacy brief highlighting where the world must focus in order to end AIDS in children.
- Key note presentations and reports shared at The Coalition’s 2016 expert meeting on HIV-sensitive care force planning for children.
- Key note presentations and reports shared at The Coalition’s 2011 expert meeting on mobilizing families, communities and social systems to prevent the vertical transmission of HIV.
- In order for families and communities to be supportive, they need access to essential services, support and assistance, social protection, economic participation and empowerment, and enabling policies and institutions. For more details on family and community-centered support, read the Coalition’s seminal report, Where the Heart Is.