Vulnerable Children

High AIDS mortality rates in the Caribbean have left a growing number of children without parents. As in other parts of the world, children orphaned by HIV face unique traumas. Many children, some as young as four years old, learn to care for themselves and others long before the death of their parents. Apart from the trauma of watching their loved ones die, they are often the only contact between the dying parent and the outside world. While girls are disproportionately affected because of gender inequities that see them as natural caregivers, many OVC are unable to attend school once their status or the status of the parent(s) they care for is known. In this way children in many communities across the region suffer the same stigma and discrimination meted out to their infected parents. On the street, at school, and in their families, these children are often shunned because of their association with HIV or AIDS, or because they themselves are infected. While in Sub-Saharan Africa the push has been to change community norms and practices that deprive OVC of their rights, in the Caribbean institutional care has been deemed preferable in some instances, since it provides children with the ability of growing up in a loving and supportive environment.

Children born with HIV are also particularly vulnerable. Their vulnerability derives not only from the fact that they are neglected in treatment research and responses, including children's formulations of antiretrovirals, but also because they constitute a new community alive today because of medication. In a context where their psychosocial development presents challenges however, society has not yet begun to come to terms with making a place for these young people.  In direct opposition to the assumptions many hold that they are treated with special care because they are children, many are seen as a particular danger to their communities, including their school communities and neighborhoods.  They are often shunned by other family members as well for their status.

As the region grapples with the issues faced by orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV, CVC and our member organisations have made our own voices heard and its position felt on the matter too often shrouded in silence (Listen to OVC radio interview) by advocating for their equitable treatment and for respecting their rights as children and as young people.