Children key to Kenya’s new AIDS strategy
Thousands of Kenyan children need treatment for HIV and Aids and are not getting it, says Human Rights Watch.
It is critical for Kenya to recognise that basic human rights issues are making children vulnerable to HIV and preventing them getting proper care, the organisation says.
The call to address children’s rights comes as Kenya’s National Aids Control Council (NACC) draws up a new five year plan for handling the disease. These children’s rights issues must be part of the strategy, the group urges the government.
About half of Kenyan adults who need anti-retroviral treatment are receiving it, compared with about a third of children who need such treatment, the group says.“Many children are falling through the cracks when it comes to testing and treatment. Health facilities should offer testing to all children below the age of five and all children whose mothers are HIV-positive or who have died of the disease," said Juliane Kippenberg of Human Rights Watch children's rights division.
Anti-retroviral treatment for children is often offered only at central health facilities, and not local ones, which makes travel costs a significant barrier. Frequently, children are also not taken for testing by their caregivers because of the stigma attached to the illness, misinformation, neglect, or lack of resources.
"It is time for Kenya to recognize that basic human rights issues have to be part of all HIV strategy, policy, and programming," said Juliane Kippenberg, senior researcher in the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. "HIV/AIDS strategies in Kenya too often focus only on medical care itself. Steps to promote and protect human rights need to take place in tandem with steps that improve medical care if the strategy is going to be successful."
Many children living with HIV are orphans or vulnerable children who suffer abuse and neglect. The child-protection system, which lacks adequate staff and resources, does not reach many of these children.
About eight per cent of Kenyan adults are HIV-positive, according to United Nations estimates. And 1.2 million children in Kenya have lost one or both parents to the disease. Orphans are often taken in by family members, but those families already afflicted by poverty may struggle to cope, both financially and emotionally, and find they are unable to care for these already-traumatised children.
SOS Children has four Children's Villages in Kenya and runs many projects to help those with HIV/AIDS. The Family Carer Centre in Buru Buru, Nairobi, works to prevent child abandonment and family break-up in households that are affected by HIV / AIDS and who are caring for orphans and vulnerable children. In Eldoret, in the far west of Kenya, a new SOS Social Centre was set up in 2008. It runs a similar programme to that in Nairobi, promoting awareness of HIV / AIDS as well as carrying out HIV testing and providing counselling to the communities.
Written by Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children
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