*EPF412 05/09/2002
Fact Sheet: More than 10 Million Children Have Lost a Parent to HIV/AIDS
(UNICEF examines how epidemic impacts the future of a generation) (1580)

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is taking a dramatic toll on children who are losing one or both parents to the disease, leaving youngsters with inadequate means to fulfill basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and education. The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) outlines the problem faced by these children in a fact sheet.

Following is the text of the fact sheet:

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A UNICEF Fact Sheet

Orphans and Other Children Affected by HIV/AIDS

The Facts

By 2001, AIDS had killed the mother or both parents of 10.4 million children currently under the age of 15. The disease orphaned some 2.3 million children in 2000 alone.

Already, children orphaned by HIV/AIDS comprise the majority of orphans under the age of 15. The tragedy continues to worsen as the disease kills ever-larger numbers of people. By 2010, the total number of children orphaned by AIDS is expected to more than double.

Because AIDS has killed more people in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else, the vast majority of orphans and other children affected by HIV/AIDS are also in this region. Nigeria had approximately 970,000 orphans at the end of 1999; Ethiopia 900,000; Zimbabwe 623,000; Zambia 447,000; and South Africa 371,000.

But as epidemics worsen in other regions - such as in the Caribbean and parts of Asia - the number of orphaned children in these areas will increase dramatically.

Children suffer profoundly as their parents fall sick or die. Their experience is often characterized by:

--Psychosocial distress. Their parents' illness and death causes extreme psychosocial distress - worsened by the pervasive stigma and shame attached to HIV/AIDS.

--Economic hardship. With parents unable to work and savings spent on care, children are forced to take on the frightening adult responsibil-ity of supporting the family.

--Withdrawal from school. The pressures of earning for and caring for parents and siblings can lead children to withdraw from school, even while their parents are living. The pressures to abandon schooling intensify when one or both parents die.

--Malnutrition and illness. Orphans and other affected children are more likely to be malnourished or to fall ill - and less likely to get the medical care they need. Poverty is the root cause, but neglect and discrimination by adults in whose care they have been left are also important factors.

--Loss of inheritance. Orphans are regularly cheated out of their inheritance.

--Fear and isolation. Dispossessed orphans are often forced out to unfamiliar and hostile places.

--Increased abuse and increased risk of HIV. Impoverished and without parents to educate and protect them, orphans and affected children face every kind of abuse and risk, including HIV infection. Many are forced into exploitative and dangerous work - including exchanging sex for money, food, 'protection' or shelter.

The Response: Core principles and strategies

The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June 2001 generated an unprecedented level of global leadership, awareness and support to respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

With their partners, governments attending the Special Session adopted a Declaration of Commitment, agreeing to:

"By 2003, develop and by 2005 implement national policies and strategies to: build and strengthen governmental, family and community capacities to provide a supportive environment for orphans and girls and boys infected and affected by HIV/AIDS including by:

--providing appropriate counselling and psychosocial support;

--ensuring their enrolment in school and access to shelter, good nutrition, health and social services on an equal basis with other children;

--to protect orphans and vulnerable children from all forms of abuse, violence, exploitation, discrimination, trafficking and loss of inheritance."

In addition, by 2005, significant progress will be made in implementing strategies to:

"Strengthen family and community-based care including that provided by the informal sector, and health care systems to provide and monitor treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS, including infected children, and to support individuals, households, families and communities affected by HIV/AIDS. . . ."

The Declaration also asks governments and partners to ensure non-discrimination and equal enjoyment of all human rights through actively promoting the destigmatization of children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. It also urges all sectors of the international community to support programmes for children orphaned or made vulnerable in affected regions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Experience in working with orphans and other affected children has shown that five complementary strategies are needed to best protect and care for them:

--Strengthen the caring and coping capacities of families - by providing free basic education and expanding social welfare and income-generating programmes.

--Mobilize and strengthen community-based mechanisms - by establishing community-level orphan monitoring committees and community day-care centres.

--Strengthen the capacity of children and young people to meet their basic needs and fulfill their rights - by providing educational materials, life-skills education and vocational training.

--Protect and fulfill the rights of the most vulnerable by strengthening the capacity of government, at all levels - to promote legal reform (inheritance, property, adoption and fostering laws) and ensure access to social services for children.

--Create an enabling environment - to combat stigma and discrimination generated by HIV/AIDS.

Institutionalized care for the majority of orphans and other affected children is not an appropriate option. Resources are more effectively used in strengthening the abilities of families and communities to care for orphaned and affected children in their midst. Where institutional care is offered, programmes must be developed to integrate children back into their communities at the earliest opportunity.

Principles to guide accelerated action

The need for guiding principles for these strategies was highlighted at the XII International AIDS Conference in Durban in July 2000. A consensus was developed through consultations involving governments, international agencies, NGOs, community organizations and young people.

These principles are a common point of reference to guide programmes for children:

1. Strengthen the protection and care of orphans and other vulnerable children within their extended families and communities.

2. Strengthen the economic coping capacities of families and communities.

3. Enhance the capacity of families and communities to respond to the psychosocial needs of orphans, vulnerable children and their caregivers.

4. Link HIV/AIDS prevention activities, care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS and efforts to support orphans and other vulnerable children.

5. Focus on the most vulnerable children and communities, not only those orphaned by AIDS.

6. Give particular attention to the roles of boys and girls, men and women, and address gender discrimination.

7. Ensure the full involvement of young people as part of the solution.

8. Strengthen schools and ensure access to education. 9. Reduce stigma and discrimination. 10. Accelerate learning and information exchange. 11. Strengthen partners and partnerships at all levels and build coalitions among key stakeholders.

12. Ensure that external support strengthens and does not undermine community initiative and motivation.

UNICEF's Response

UNICEF's work is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the world's most widely embraced human rights treaty. Winning against HIV/AIDS is a top priority for UNICEF because this disease is depriving millions of children of their rights to survive, to develop, to be protected and to have a say in decisions that affect them.

UNICEF's response pivots on partnerships at all levels. These partnerships include support to governments to develop national policies for orphans and legislation to protect the rights of orphaned children, complemented by support for the development of innovative community-based programmes to provide care and support for children and families in need.

Partnerships with NGOs, faith groups and traditional leaders are particularly important, for example in reducing discrimination. Fur ther key alliances include those with organizations of people living with HIV/AIDS.

UNICEF's Medium-Term Strategic Plan for 2002-2005 builds on its experience of helping to establish and expand programmes for children affected by HIV/AIDS, by prioritizing support to actions that:

--Provide appropriate counselling and psychosocial support to orphans and other children;

--Ensure their enrolment in school and access to shelter, good nutrition, health and other social services on an equal basis with other children;

--Strengthen community capacities to identify and monitor vulnerable households;

--Provide care and support for orphans and vulnerable children in a supportive environment under the protection of responsible adults; and

--Protect orphans and vulnerable children from all forms of abuse, violence, exploitation, discrimination, trafficking and loss of inheritance.

UNICEF's work with orphans and other children affected by HIV/AIDS includes providing support to:

--A comprehensive situation analysis of orphans and other vulnerable children in Zambia;

--Thailand's Sanga Metta Project, which helps build the capacity of religious communities to address the needs of children;

--The reunification of orphans with their extended families in Eritrea;

--Community-based organizations that register and monitor the situation of orphans in Malawi;

--Faith-based organizations and networks to stop the trafficking of girls and young women in the Philippines, and to increase their protection from commercial sexual exploitation;

--Tanzania's and Uganda's efforts to increase the capacity of schools to enroll out-of-school children;

--Advocacy leading to legislation guaranteeing the right of women to own and inherit property in Lesotho and Mozambique; and

--Community-based organizations in Brazil that provide psychosocial assistance to children living with HIV/AIDS.

For further information, please contact: HIV/AIDS Unit, UNICEF Address: 3 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA Telephone: (212) 824-6555 E-mail: nyhq. hivaids@ unicef. org Website: www. unicef. org/ aids

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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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