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The impact of AIDS on Children: Something can be done
Busie Bhebhe, Child Protection Society (CPS)
Extracted from the Child Advocate Newsletter, Issue No. 3
December 2003

As HIV and AIDS play havoc with the security of family life, children find themselves faced with the uncertainties of orphan-hood. An estimated 2,500 Zimbabweans die weekly of AIDS and the number of orphans is now pegged at 1,2 million, of who 780,000 have lost their parents to AIDS. These 780,000 children who have been robbed of their right to parental love and care and are vulnerable to losing access to food, education, health care, equality and everything that parents work to provide for their children. In addition to being a medical problem AIDS is also a social challenge. Therefore when children are affected or infected by AIDS, their whole life course changes and in most cases are forced to take on adult responsibilities as adults succumb to the disease. Often these changing circumstances of their lives expose them to trauma, stigma and discrimination associated with AIDS.

As a matter of fact

• The 1,2 million orphaned children form 20% of the children’s population in Zimbabwe
• 240,000 children are living with HIV and AIDS
• There are 5,000 children in institutions*
• There are 12,000 children living and working on the streets*
• 25% of all children in Zimbabwe are living in a family with at least one HIV positive parent*
• Between 57 000 and 100 000 children in Zimbabwe are infected with HIV

Social impact
Aids brings the following into a child’s life:

• Poverty as resources are diverted to health care and eventually get exhausted.
• Death if parents also indicate drying up of sources of income
  
• Stigma associated with cultural blame or the deteriorating health and economic status of children
• Discrimination that often is expressed in social exclusion by friends, relatives and peers and usually leads to loneliness and depression
• Multiple losses that is parents, other family members or friends resulting in protracted periods of grief
  Health problems due to opportunistic infections and sometimes poor nutrition and care giving

These facts are a clear indication that children are bearing the burden of AIDS. If they are not dying of the disease, their parents or custodians are, leaving them to completely fend for themselves and deal with pressures no child should have to concern themselves with. The situation is worsened by the fact that the extended family system, which used to be a safety net for orphans has collapsed due to urbanisation and the impact of HIV and AIDS. Increasingly therefore children are heading households without any adult guidance.

Hope
In spite of the gloomy picture children still represent the hope and opportunity for every society. CPS realises that the problems created by AIDS around children are so overwhelming that to deal with them calls for a national multisectoral approach. Government efforts need to be complimented by NGO and private sector efforts. The success of the Orphan Care Policy whose thrust is ‘community responsibility for children needing care’ depends on this multisectoral responsibility.

Action
The following actions should be considered by all concerned:

• Promotion of programmes that support orphans and vulnerable children in communities, psychologically, economically and socially
• Build on children’s own resources and peer support wherever it is possible
• Provide access to education, health and social services for orphans and children by deliberately allocating resources in a child friendly budgets, formulation and planning
• Setting clear firm targets for improving the lives and prospects of orphaned and vulnerable children
• Making a long term commitment to community and human development.

Every sector has to realise that they have a duty of fulfilling children’s rights to survival and development in an environment where their rights are guaranteed. As Ghandi said, "If we are to reach real peace in this world we shall have to begin with the children".

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