Protecting and Supporting Orphaned and Vulnerable Children

Globally, as of 2007, an estimated 15.2 million children had lost one or both parents to AIDS. Some 80 per cent of these children – about 12 million – live in sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated that by 2010 more than 20 million children will have been orphaned by AIDS.

Children orphaned by AIDS are not the only children affected by the epidemic. Many more children live with parents who are chronically ill, live in households that have taken in orphans due to AIDS or have lost teachers and other adult members of the community to AIDS.

Orphaned and vulnerable children face grave risks to their education, health and well-being. They may have to forgo schooling; there may be less food or clothing for them in the household; they may suffer from anxiety, depression and abuse. Alarmingly, new evidence finds that orphans and vulnerable children have a higher risk of exposure to HIV than non-affected children.

Thanks to work by UNICEF and its partners, things are starting to improve for those children affected by AIDS. Access to education is improving in several countries. In Mozambique in 2002, an orphaned child was less than half as likely to attend school as one not orphaned. Today, thanks to UNICEF and its partners, orphaned children attend schools at 80% the rate of non-orphaned children.

Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS calls for national strategic planning to make communities and families the primary beneficiaries of an increased global response for orphans and vulnerable children.