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At Asia’s last high-level meeting on HIV and AIDS, the ICAAP in Sri Lanka last August, Charu expressed one major disappointment.
“The congress had so many people, but no children except us,” she said.
Charu was one of three Indian child delegates invited to the event through World Vision to host a workshop session on how HIV and AIDS affects children. They were the only children there, in a crowd of 2000 delegates and experts – the only ones who could say first-hand how it felt to be born and grow up with the killer virus inside you.
“My little sister has to take so many tablets and she hates it. It hurts me to see her go through that pain, and I wanted to tell people that they need to hurry up and do something to reduce the dosage for children,” Charu said during the panel discussion.
Worldwide, children under 15 constitute less than 6% of all HIV cases. However, of new infections in 2006, over 12% were children. Of deaths, 13% were under 15. Countless more have been orphaned, made destitute or homeless, gone without food, school, or other childhood rights as a result of HIV in their family.
The way that children deal with their HIV and AIDS experiences varies enormously, dictated by country boundaries, government policies and cultural traditions. A comparison of country situations in Asia and the Pacific reveals a diversity of priorities to protect these children; reduction of morality-based stigma in India, better education and awareness in Papua New Guinea, increasing family capacity to care for orphans in Cambodia, targeting a new generation of sexually active youth in Thailand.
We know this because we have researched trends, evaluated statistics and tracked policy progress. What we may have forgotten though, is to ask the children themselves to take part in solutions.
Giving children a voice, especially the disadvantaged or vulnerable, validates them to publicly challenge many of the situations that affect them – including HIV and AIDS.
Can children reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS? Yes – by speaking up within their families or communities on risky behaviour that affects them or their relatives. Can children create a fairer world for their peers affected by HIV and AIDS? Yes – by promoting messages of tolerance and acceptance that they often understand better than adults.
Can children change government policy, to improve paediatric health care, reduce mother-to-child transmission, create better protection for high-risk groups, and end the stigma that makes life for those affected even harder? Yes – but they need to be invited.
How many children will be in attendance at the G8 meeting in Japan to join discussions and add perspective to the problems and solutions of HIV and AIDS?
“It would be good if we can have more children than adults,” said Charu after ICAAP, smiling.
Children in action
- In India, World Vision invited a group of children affected by HIV and AIDS to script and produce a short film on how stigma and discrimination affects people living with HIV and AIDS.
Twenty five children from World Vision’s HIV and AIDS project in Chennai and child labour project in Vellore spent ten days at a camp learning about child rights and how to express their issues through media arts. At the end of the camp the children created several short film scripts on various topics.
“We were struck by the fact that two of the four scripts created were on the issue of child abuse’” says Sriram Aiyer of Nalandaway Foundation, who provided the training. This may reflect the high rates of violence against children in India; recent studies by the Government show that more than 40% of children below 15 years of age suffer some form of abuse.
One of the scripts, possibly based on the experiences of an HIV-positive girl in the group, takes a very light-hearted look at a child’s struggle for acceptance. It was made into a short film titled ‘Got you!’
- In Vietnam, 15 year old Linh remembers growing up with active discrimination and hatred against her. But, she says, that has now changed.
"All my classmates support me very much and are no longer cold towards me," says Linh, class monitor and leader of her school's Young Pioneer team. "They have changed their mind about the disease since the activities on HIV and AIDS took place in my school last year. My school has broadcasted a weekly radio program about the topic while students have been excited about music shows, plays and quiz shows on HIV and AIDS."
"We believe that children will not discriminate against those who are infected or affected by HIV and AIDS once they completely understand about the disease," says Hoang Thi Thuan, the principal of Linh's secondary school, who has helped to implement World Vision’s Time to Change education programme. "Of 670 students in my school, 10 of them are children affected by HIV and AIDS. None of the children are isolated any more."
- Last year, HIV-positive spokesperson Aoy expressed a feeling of hope that Thailand’s attitude was changing. “Four years ago when I found out that I had AIDS there was disgust, fear and discrimination,” she said. “Nowadays, I’m just a normal person with an illness like diabetes. I feel there is a space for us.”
To end the event, the teenagers walked from one side of the bridge while people living with HIV and AIDS walked from the other. They carried candles to symbolise hope and compassion as they met in the middle.
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