Give HIV/AIDS Affected Children a Future 

01/12/2005 - Ottawa, Canada: In the five years since the landmark UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was adopted unanimously by UN Member States, that pandemic continues to devastate the lives of millions of children around the world, effectively robbing them of their futures.

One of the world's largest child-focused charities, SOS Children’s Villages has given long-term family care to orphaned and abandoned children for more than fifty years. However, faced with the overwhelming numbers of children affected by HIV/AIDS, the organization is creating new approaches and initiatives to meet the crippling need for care, medical aid, education and social development.

According to the UNAIDS/WHO report on HIV/AIDS released on November 21, 2005, the number of people living with HIV globally has reached its highest level, with an estimated 40.3 million people, up from 37.5 million in 2003. More than three million people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2005; of these, 570,000 were children. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the most affected globally, with 64% of new infections occurring in that region.

The social support programs of SOS Children's Villages focuses primarily on efforts to help children and young people whose health, lives and futures are threatened by the enormous toll taken by HIV/AIDS. The main target areas for programs are Southern Africa, the Western and Central African regions, East Africa and countries in Eastern Europe.

SOS Children's Villages now operates 57 social centres and social support programs working with children affected by HIV/AIDS on the African continent. By late-2007, that number is expected to increase by 21. There are also HIV/AIDS related projects for children, young people and their families in Estonia and Ukraine, and numerous SOS Children's Village facilities throughout the world. Locally based HIV/AIDS relief programs at the community level are a top priority. In many cases SOS Children’s Villages operates HIV/AIDS awareness programs in cooperation with other relief organizations, community initiatives and local authorities.

In the sub-Sahara, children are increasingly vulnerable. Growing numbers of children live in households with sick and dying family members. Countless numbers have lost all of their immediate family to the disease. Grandparents, in dire economic circumstances themselves, are left to care for these children. When there are no grandparents, older brothers and sisters become the chief caregivers.

The stigma of HIV/AIDS and the discrimination towards its victims continues to be a significant problem, which extends not only to people who are HIV positive, but also to the children whose parents are infected or have died of HIV/AIDS related causes. In many cases, taboos are not the only issue. Access to basic care and education is blocked, spurring on the vicious circle of poverty and, disease.

Throughout Africa, SOS Children’s Villages provides community support and assistance to families affected by HIV/AIDS. That help may include food parcels, clothing, education, counseling, respite centres, income generation projects as well as help with school fees and scholarship programs for children from HIV/AIDS affected families. SOS Medical Centres play a crucial role in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention operating programs for testing and counseling and providing meeting/support venues for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Other key priority areas for SOS intervention in Africa include links with social security/welfare services, life skills training on how to live with HIV/AIDS, caring for someone with HIV, and workshops on how to start a small business.

Emmay Mah, who has just returned to Canada after working as a Field Officer with SOS Children's Villages in South Africa, worked extensively with SOS South Africa administrative and frontline workers to create and operate family strengthening programs. "Our purpose, is to prevent children from being deprived of the care of their family, by addressing the causes of why this happens," she explains. "Our approach is to work with families and communities to help them to improve their ability to protect and care for their children," she continues.

Target groups for the programs include children who:

• are living with a chronically-ill parent due to HIV/AIDS or other terminal illness;
• have already lost one or both parents
• are living in an orphan household (i.e. a household sheltering one or more orphans).

Ms. Mah emphasized that SOS family strengthening programs are closely linked with the communities in which the programs run, and operate on four principles:

• to meet the needs of children within their community;
• to base operation on the needs and priorities of the community;
• to build equal partnerships with the community;
• to promote self-reliance within the community.

"The family strengthening programs are geared towards strengthening the capacity of families to protect and care for their children," she says. "We want to build self-reliance within the family, so that it is able to fulfill its responsibility for the care of its children."

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