Towards entrapment: an escalating reality for children and adolescents living with HIV/Aids in Uganda

Abstract

In 2004, UNAIDS, UNICEF, and USAID collaborated and authored an influential report titled Children in the Brink (UNICEF, 2004). This report is used to set the context of this book chapter. The publication did not only give comprehensive statistics on children orphaned by AIDS and other causes but also gave a framework for understanding the fundamental issues that relate to protection, care, and support for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) living in a world plagued by HIV and AIDS. In terms of statistics, the report gave a glaring picture. For example, sub- Saharan Africa (SSA) was reported to have 43.4 million orphans (of all causes) in 2003. During this period, more than 12.3 million children had been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The same report labored to provide a framework for the protection, care, and support for OVC. This framework was to be used by national governments to attach resources and also offer both policy and programmatic basis for interventions responding to the growing OVC epidemic. Further, this framework for protection, care, and support of OVC was affirmed by the Global Partners’ Forum, with support from UNICEF and other major donors. The weight and value given to this frame- work raised a lot of hope that children will be removed from what the report referred to as the “brink.” It is now over a decade, since this influential report came out of print.