HIV-AIDS and children

It has been 25 years since the HIV-AIDS virus was identified in 1981 and an estimated 25 million people have died from the disease. According to UNAIDS, 2.6 million adults and 570,000 children under the age of 15 years died of AIDS last year.

While access to ARVs (anti-retro virals) has improved and people with HIV are now living positively for longer, much remains to combat the disease. Plan has a comprehensive child centred approach towards HIV-AIDS. Women and girls suffer the burden of AIDS more than men and Plan believes young people have a vital role to play in the response to HIV and AIDS.

Responses must be holistic and integrated to benefit the most vulnerable groups, which are often, children and young people, including children orphaned by AIDS, and the poorest of the poor.

Without the protection of a parent or carer, children orphaned by AIDS are particularly vulnerable to property snatching, physical or sexual abuse, inadequate access to healthcare or education. The failure of donors and governments to co-ordinate their different departments responsible for law, social welfare, education and health means that children are not receiving the protection they need.