Make Children Visible in the AIDS Response

The topic of Children and HIV was given centre stage on day 3 of the conference starting with an excellent plenary session on the state of the epidemic in children. Linda Richter from the University of Kwa Zulu Natal spoke with passion about how children have been invisible in the response for too long. The failure in children points to a massive failure in prevention and in particular the prevention of mother to child transmission of the virus– currently just one third of pregnant women receive this low cost effective treatment that could stop transmission to their babies. It also brings sharply into focus the inequities facing children in the poorest parts of the world. A child’s risk of becoming infected is down to 2% in countries such as Ireland but a child in Africa (with the exception of Botswana) will have a one in ten to one in three chance of contracting HIV from his or her mother during pregnancy. The result is a huge tragedy for future generations; 370,000 children became infected last year and 2 million children are living with HIV today. Most children will die before their second birthday without treatment. The vast majority of these children are in sub-Saharan Africa and less than 10% are receiving antiretroviral therapy.

The double tragedy is that these same children are being orphaned or are living in very vulnerable circumstances as a result of the epidemic. 15 million children have been orphaned as a result of HIV and AIDS; 12million of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of these children still have one parent alive since orphaned in this context means that one or both parents has died. The shocking statistic is that only 15% of vulnerable families receive any form of support. Linda Richter reminded us that the epidemic affects more than those infected – for families living in poverty there are few differences between orphaned children and those affected by HIV and AIDS. The message from AIDS 2008 is to support children in families, to keep parents alive, to create social protection for the poorest families and expand income transfers. Children are best cared for and protected in functional families with income support to keep them from the poverty trap with high risk of contracting HIV or dying as a result of an AIDS related illness. It seems obvious but the best orphan and vulnerable children’s programme cannot replace a parent.

The resilience of these children is often lost in the cold statistics of prevalence and deaths. Bill Clinton told a story about a shy young 15 year-old boy who lost both his parents to AIDS when he was 7 and had been brought up by his older sister who was just a few years his senior. When he bent down to tell the boy not to give up, the up-until-then shy youngster looked up to him in astonishment and said – ‘give up but I’m going to be a doctor’. Young teenagers at this conference have also spoken with the wisdom of Solomon. Thembi Ngubane, a young South African woman who was diagnosed at 16 took a year and a half out at 19 to write about her experience as a way of coping with her diagnosis and to inspire and guide other young people. Her diary is now online (see http://www.radiodiaries.org/aidsdiary/) and is broadcast on radio in South Africa with huge outreach to others who were going through the same experience.

All of these issues will no doubt be debated in Ireland and the upcoming Global Partners Forum on Children co hosted by Irish Aid and UNICEF in October. In preparation for this Irish Aid held a symposium event on children for Irish participants and associates on Wednesday afternoon. Health and Development Networks used adult and child key correspondents to cover all the sessions that focused on children. They fed back to the group and were joined by Mary Robinson and Brendan Howlin who attended as the Deputy Chair of AWEPA. The correspondents echoed many of the messages in earlier sessions but they also spoke of the role of civil society holding governments to account to fulfil their commitments to children. The highlight of the session however had to be the children’s feedback - they were brilliant - my only complaint was that they are all boys! They read out their impressions and thoughts from the many things that they had heard. The eldest was 13 and the youngest 7 and I’ll leave you with the words of Daniel Kezaala, a 9 year old who shared his thoughts after he heard Bill Clinton speak “ If I was HIV positive I would feel scared and sad. When Bill Clinton told us the story of a boy named Jean Pierre, HIV positive, this story made me feel sad but I also thought it was amazing. This boy who was 15 years old was still determined to be a medical doctor even though he’s only in the third grade. It also made me more determined to choose my own goals”. Let's hope that the world responds to the calls to afford millions of children the dignity that they deserve and the potential to reach their goals in secure and safe environments.
Posted by Finola Finnan