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CHILDREN, AIDS & POVERTY

The Challenge

HIV, AIDS and poverty exacerbate the challenges that hard-hit countries and populations face.

According to UNAIDS, sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV and AIDS, accounting for 68 percent of all people living with HIV and AIDS worldwide, and nearly 90 percent of all HIV-positive children.

Families and communities continue to face enormous challenges in caring for the estimated 12 million children under the age of 18 who have lost at least one of their parents to HIV and AIDS and have been made vulnerable by poverty and other causes in sub-Saharan Africa.

This is a place where 56 percent of people live on less than $1 a day and more than 60 percent of children live in poverty.

In the areas hardest hit by HIV and AIDS, families and communities bear approximately 90 percent of the costs and the burden of caring for children. This burden—combined with disintegrating family structures, economic hardship, and stigma—make it difficult to provide children with all that they need to survive and thrive, including food, shelter, education, health, safety, nurturing, and care.

The Good News

• More than 80 percent of children designated as ‘orphans’ actually have a surviving parent.
• Approximately 90 percent of all children affected by HIV, AIDS and poverty receive care and assistance from community-based organizations and extended families.
• Ninety-five percent of children affected by HIV, AIDS and poverty live with extended families, rather than on the streets or in institutions.
• Grassroots organizations offer support and hope to children and families in their own communities.

While it is undeniable that children and families affected by HIV, AIDS and poverty face incredible hardships on a daily basis, there is also something equally true:

There are innumerable small, humble, yet powerful local initiatives in which ordinary people are doing extraordinary things to care for vulnerable children and their families.

Firelight Foundation supports the resilient and resourceful local leaders and community-based organizations that build and sustain these collective efforts to provide care and support to vulnerable children and families in their communities.

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