http://www.crin.org/docs/save_children_hiv.pdf

HIV and AIDS have impacted severely on Africa and its children. The infection rate has risen rapidly and the scale of prevalence is largely unabated. Moreover, the epidemic compounds existing problems that children and families face resulting from decades of exploitation, poverty, civil and regional conflict, and natural disasters. UNAIDS data indicates that Sub-Saharan Africa remains the hardest hit region in the world, with a total of 25 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

Many children in Sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to those who receive most media
attention (i.e. orphans, child heads-of-household, and children living with HIV/
AIDS), are affected by HIV/AIDS, poverty, and social instability. They include already
vulnerable children, especially children with disabilities and children living outside
of family care, as well as children living with chronically ill or disabled adults, children
in homes that have become poorer as a result of fostering in children from the
extended family, and children in communities suffering a high burden of illness,
dependency, destitution, and death. In all of these situations, children’s health, economic
and food security, family life, connections to social institutions, opportunities
to learn, human rights to development, and hopes for the future, are threatened.

Responses to the HIV and AIDS crisis should recognise root-causes of the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS, including gender inequality, as a source of vulnerability. A new report published by Save the Children Sweden examines how a rights-based approach's underlying principles of universality, indivisibility, responsibility, and participation can provide a firm foundation for framing priorities and responses to children and families.

Further information

• CRIN's information page on HIV and AIDS
• CRIN's website on rights-based programming

Organisation Contact Details:

Save the Children Sweden
107 88
Stockholm
Tel: + 46 8 698 9000
Email: info@rb.se
Website: www.savethechildren.se

Last updated 09/01/2007 07:14:51