Fact sheet
Common Effects of Being Orphaned by HIV/AIDS
Children and young people who have lost one or both parents to AIDS are likely to suffer from such problems as:
- Increased poverty due to healthcare and medicine costs, loss of adult income, decreased land cultivation and agricultural output, funeral costs, property disposession.
- School absenteeism, dropping out, because of inability to afford school fees, necessity to nurse parents or earn money.
- Malnutrition, as a result of lower income and decreased and less nutritious crop cultivation.
- Psychological problems as a result of parental loss, social stigmatisation of HIV/AIDS, discrimination, peer rejection.
- Homelessness.
- Exposure to the worst forms of child labour, including domestic work, quarrying, and commercial sex work.
- Increased risk of violence, exploitation and, particularly for girls, sexual abuse, which leads to an increased risk of exposure to HIV infection.
For more information and to order B-roll, please contact:
Liza Barrie, UNICEF New York,
Senior Communication Adviser, HIV/AIDS
(1-212) 326-7593, (1-646) 207-5178; lbarrie@unicef.org
Marixie Mercado, UNICEF New York, HIV/AIDS
(646) 247 2975; mmercado@unicef.org
Marc Vergara, UNICEF Geneva,
(41-22) 909 5718; mvergara@unicef.org
Wivina Belmonte, UNICEF Geneva,
(41-22) 909 5712; wbelmonte@unicef.org
Madeline Eisner, UNICEF Nairobi,
(254-2) 622-214, (254-722)520-595;
meisner@unicef.org
