OVC Support Toolkit  >  Introduction  >  The Situation 

The Situation of Children and Young People

Children and young people grow up in families and communities. The situation facing children and young people is closely linked to the situation facing their families and communities . Key points about the situation affecting children and young people are that:

1. Children and young people begin to be affected by HIV/AIDS well before a parent dies. Severe, prolonged parental illness can have a devastating effect on children and young people.

2. Children and young people may be affected directly by HIV/AIDS and the effects it has on their families and communities.

3. Children and young people are highly resilient. They can often cope with the situations they find themselves in. However, some of the coping mechanisms they use may make them vulnerable. For example, they may leave school to care for a sick parent or go to work/get married at an early age.

4. Some people believe that children and young people should be directly protected from the effects of HIV/AIDS. Others believe they should be empowered to help them cope more effectively.

Child development is a process of change which affects a child in many ways, including:

• Physically: for example, the ability to move
• Emotionally: the ability to feel and understand emotions
• Cognitively: the ability to think and reason
• Socially: the ability to relate to others

Child development is a continuous process but different stages have been recognised. These are newborn to 23 months, 24-59 months, 6-12 years and 13-adulthood. Understanding these stages helps adults to know what to expect at different stages of child development. This can be important when trying to provide a child with psychosocial support, for example, trying to accompany a child through a time of grief.

HIV/AIDS affects children and young people much earlier than when they become orphans. There are three stages - parental illness, parental death and orphanhood.

There are two groups of impacts of HIV/AIDS on children and young people ? the direct effects of HIV/AIDS and those which come from children's efforts to survive and cope.

Direct impacts include:

• Children living with HIV/AIDS experience poor health, poor growth and stigma/discrimination. However, approximately 99% of children orphaned by AIDS do not have HIV. Many children living with HIV/AIDS are not orphans. Their parents are still alive.
• Psychosocial consequences of parental illness and death Much has been written about children's grief and bereavement when a parent dies. However, this is still frequently overlooked by carers. They may exclude children and young people from funerals and other grieving processes because they want to protect them.
• Stigma and discrimination In many societies, orphanhood and HIV infection are both causes of stigma and discrimination.
• Economic Parental illness and death affect children and young people economically. This is because of the loss of the parent's income, the high costs of health care and the lack of community 'safety nets' to help families in these situations. This may be particularly the case where it is the father who dies.

Children and young people are also vulnerable as a result of their efforts to survive and cope. These efforts include:

• Taking on a variety of "adult" roles : This may happen even before parents die. Children and young people, especially girls, are withdrawn from school to care for sick parents. They may also perform poorly at school, for example if they are tired from agricultural work. However, in most families with healthy parents, children and young people are expected to contribute to these roles. The amount they are expected to do can increase greatly with parental illness and death.
• Taking responsibility for household livelihood: This involves reducing "unnecessary" expenses, such as on health care and education. Money is then used mainly for the things needed to survive, for example food. It also involves efforts to increase income, for example through wage labour or farming activities. However, in some cases children and young people lack the skills needed for such work. They may also be prevented from taking on formal employment because of laws designed to prevent child labour . There are three stages in the way households cope financially with problems, such as parental illness. These are wage labour, selling assets (property) and finally, destitution.
• Relocating or being relocated : Children and young people may "run away" in order to get away from a particular situation. They may also do so to find ways of contributing to personal/household livelihoods. Alternatively, they may be relocated, for example to other family members, in order to find an adult who can care for them.
• Being vulnerable to a number of risks : These include HIV infection , substance use, child labour , criminal activity and sexual exploitation including early marriage.

• Send to a friend
• Printer-friendly
• Introductions to themes (pdf)