[Press Kit]

showed that 32 per cent of orphans in
urban areas were not enrolled in
school, as compared with 25 per cent
of non-orphaned children. Children
who have been orphaned by AIDS may
also not receive the health care they
need, and sometimes this is because it
is assumed they are infected with HIV
and their illnesses are untreatable.
Increasingly, children whose parents
are dead accumulate ever greater
burdens of responsibility as head of
household when a grandparent or
other guardian or caregiver dies.
Orphans enduring the grave social
isolation that often accompanies AIDS
when it strikes a family are at far
greater risk than most of their peers
of eventually becoming infected with
HIV. Often emotionally vulnerable
and financially desperate, orphaned
children are more likely to be sexually
abused and forced into exploitative
situations, such as prostitution, as a
means of survival.
Grieving before death and the tragedy of
losing both parents. A child whose
mother or father has HIV begins to
experience loss, sorrow and suffering
long before the parent's death. And
since HIV can spread sexually between
father and mother, once AIDS has
claimed the mother or father, the
children are far more apt to lose the
remaining parent. Children thus find
themselves thrust in the role of mother
or father or both - doing the household chores, looking after siblings,

farming, and caring for the ill or dying
parent or parents, bringing on stress
that would exhaust even adults.
In addition, because HIV infection
progresses from initial infection to
mild HIV-related illness to the lifethreatening illnesses called "AIDS,"
children can live with long periods of
uncertainty and intermittent crises,
as both parents slowly sicken and die.
In sub-Saharan Africa, where effective
relief for pain or other symptoms is
often unavailable, children who live
through their parent's pain and illness
frequently suffer from depression, stress
and anxiety. Many children lose everything that once offered them comfort,
security and hope for the future.
The AIDS stigma. The distress and
social isolation experienced by children, both before and after the death
of their parent or parents, are strongly
exacerbated by the shame, fear and
rejection that often surrounds people
affected by HIV/AIDS. Because of this
stigma and the often-irrational fear
surrounding AIDS, children may be
denied access to schooling and health
care. And once a parent dies, children,
particularly in the case of girls, may
also be denied their inheritance and
property. Moreover, as the rights of
children are inextricably linked to
those of their surviving parent, laws
and practices that deny widows their
rights and property have devastating
consequences for children after their
father's death. m