Children

In badly affected countries, the socioeconomic effect of this most destructive disease is measured in declining per capita incomes, shrinking profits in labour-intensive businesses, loss of productivity from cultivated land, and deteriorating public services such as health, welfare and education, as key staff fall ill and die. AIDS undermines the future, too, as families and communities struggle with the burdens of sick people and orphaned children, building up debts and frequently having to remove children from school because of lack of funds or because the labour of even the littlest is needed to help the family survive.

This report grows out of the shared belief by the government and UNICEF that there must be a response to the impending HIV crisis confronting women and girls in Malaysia. Strong political commitment, leadership at the highest level and a multi-sectoral framework are required to address the complex issues affecting women's ability to control and make decisions regarding sexual and reproductive health.

The Global Campaign on Children and AIDS launched worldwide on 25 October 2005 aims to put children at the centre of the global HIV/AIDS agenda. As part of this campaign, UNICEF and its partners have created an alliance to push for programmes to:

• Prevent new infections among young people, particularly girls and women;
• Prevent mother-to-child-transmission of HIV;
• Provide adequate and appropriate paediatric treatment for children with HIV/AIDS;
• Protect, care and support orphans and children affected by HIV/AIDS.

This is a presentation on the prevention, treatment, care and support for children living with HIV/AIDS in China. The presentation was made by Zhang Fujie, MD of the National Center for STD/AIDS, Control and Prevention on March 22, 2006.

This Report Card is one in a series produced by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), under the umbrella of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, and with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Young Positives.

Every day, thousands of children in the Pacific encounter numerous threats to their security and well-being: poverty, hunger, labour, sexual abuse, social instability and political upheaval. Today, they face an additional threat that not only menaces their lives, but could also unravel their countries’ development gains of the past 30 years and ultimately, wipe out the Pacific’s unique blend of different ethnicities and cultures: AIDS.

This Report Card is one in a series produced by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), under the umbrella of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, and with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Young Positives.

For millions of children, HIV and AIDS have starkly altered the experience of growing up. In 2007, it was estimated that 2.1 million children under age 15 were living with HIV. As of 2005, more than 15 million children under 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Millions more have experienced deepening poverty, school dropout and discrimination as a result of
the epidemic.

The specific objectives of this study are to: 1) review, analyze, and document the situation of children affected by HIV/AIDS in low prevalence and concentrated epidemic settings related to health, nutrition, education, protection, placement, psychosocial and cognitive development as well as socioeconomic status and experiences with HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination; 2) review, analyze, and document evidence on interventions to support children affected by HIV and AIDS in low prevalence and concentrated HIV epidemic areas; 3) summarize the extent of the evidence base,; and 4) formulate and prioritize practical recommendations to strengthen the evidence base for programming on affected children.