CN on HIV/AIDS

At the time of publication, The Center for Disease Control estimated that 1 in every 3 children orphaned by HIV/AIDS is under 5 (1999 statistics). Current UNICEF statistics indicate that in African countries heavily impacted by AIDS as many as 20% are below the age of 5. More than half of orphans are under the age of nine and many more will be living with sick parents and exhausted caregivers in impoverished conditions.

Meeting the Needs of Young Children and Caregivers
AIDS-affected children face threats to normal human development beyond those of physical survival. Deprived of consistent, responsive care and interpersonal and environmental stimulation in the critical early years of life not only leads to measurable increases in malnutrition, morbidity and mortality, neglect also inhibits healthy psychosocial and cognitive development. Over the long term, deficient psychosocial and cognitive development among AIDS affected children will have very real significance for their societies. Meeting young children's developmental needs is essential to produce the sound and stable citizens that every society needs – including societies hard hit by AIDS.

Young children affected by AIDS, like all children, need caregivers with whom they are attached or they emerge poorly socialized and alienated from their communities. They need food. They need language interaction. They need protection from danger and abuse as well as confidence and opportunities to explore their environment. Many parents living with AIDS do not acknowledge their impending death, do not plan for their children's future care, and may be unable to provide good care for their children due to depression or physical illness.

Caregivers of AIDS affected children and orphans are the keys to those children's full development. Many caregivers and ill parents urgently need assistance to access services and resources; guidance to understand and meet young children's needs; social contact to help work through grief and isolation; and help with depression.

It is therefore critical that we continue to not only focus efforts on the needs and the rights of children to survive but also on children's rights to be protected and cared for beyond survival. At the same time the failure to ensure children's rights creates opportunities for HIV infection, HIV/AIDS creates opportunities for the violation of children's rights to survival, protection, and development. This is at a time when increased poverty, abandonment, rejection or discrimination, or an added burden of responsibility for themselves and other family members, puts children at increased risk for abuse and exploitation.

Current and Proposed Actions
As an initial attempt to address this concern, issue No. 26 of the Coordinators' Notebook focuses on how HIV/AIDs is impacting the under fives and their caregivers. This issue outlines and begins to looks at 5 things that need to be better and more widely understood to help insure that orphans and vulnerable children below five years of age have a proper place on international, national, and local AIDS agendas:

• The scale of the problem
• The likelihood of survival for young children in AIDS-affected households
• The consequences of inadequate care for young children
• The special vulnerabilities of the under-5 age group in AIDS-affected areas that need attention to insure sound survival
• The kinds of action programming most feasible and most likely to affect sound survival and development.

We are interested in knowing more about what is currently happening in terms of policy, research and programming in your country/region as it relates to HIV/AIDS, young children and families. What implications does this have for those who are working in ECCD? How are countries including strategies to support young children affected by HIV/AIDS in their reporting to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and in developing EFA national plans of action?

We are very keen to receive possible resources, materials and case studies that focus on young children related to this issue as well as any other relevant feedback and views. Please send any information and materials to Louise Zimanyi or Amanda Ajodhia-Andrews at info@ecdgroup.com