Vulnerabilities facing children in families affected by HIV/AIDS

This report has described how parental deaths place orphaned children in a situation of great material and psychological vulnerability. This chapter will detail the risks that these children face and specify how the death of parents impacts children differently according to parameters such as gender, age, type of orphan (maternal, paternal or double), household socio-economic status, the location and type of residence (rural or urban), or the identity of the children’s caregiver Nampanya-Serpell, 2001.

Some of the points of vulnerability set out below concern all orphans and indirectly, AIDS orphans; conversely, other points specifically concern children who have become orphans due to HIV/AIDS. They will be dealt with together in as far as children affected by AIDS must be taken care of above all because they are orphans and/or vulnerable.

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