Hey everyone,After this week's question of the week, I thought I should do a little research on HIV/AIDS and children, and how it affects them. So I found out that thousands of kids aroung the world get HIV every year, and they end up dying of AIDS! (AVERT, 2009). According to the same source, a study showed that in 2007, 2 million kids were infected around the world! And that every year, 370,000 kids are newly infected! This is unbelievable. How can those children be left to die? Every time I look at those statistics, I feel so angry and scared that we don't have a cure for this killer yet. What if the scenario in the QOTW did really apply to my child? How will I deal with that? Will I ever be able to make my child feel normal like all the other kids??!! Please watch the video I posted to get the feeling.
Did you know that?
An HIV stigma study in Zambia showed that children with HIV/AIDS are discriminated against by their families, communities, and society. HIV stigma against children takes many forms; "
Children may be blamed for their parents’ death, children may be excluded from school, from families and from communities because of fear of infection if there is HIV in their family; Orphans are often treated differently from other children in families and accused of carrying on their parents bad behavior"!!!! (AED)
Reference:
AVERT (2009). HIV and AIDS descrimination and stigma. Retrieved October28, 2009, from http://www.avert.org/aidsstigma.htm
AED (NA). Understanding and Challenging HIV Stigma. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://www.changeproject.org/technical/hivaids/stigma.html
5 comments:
Its sad to see that children must take the burden of stigma when they are soo innocent. I feel that this hate is mainly the effect of uneducation and fear. The people in Zambia most likely dont understand the virus and are scred of its effects. By placing blame on someone else it shows, especially on inncent children.
I totally agree with you. It is such a sad thing to know that those children can't live a normal life and they have to grow up sooo fast!
This truly BREAKS my heart. Anytime a child is left out in the dust like that it angers me! I mean what fault do these innocent children have in contracting the HIV virus. The deeper I get into this class the more I feel like I need to do something to help these children. What can we do?
Tough to hear but it is definately true. In America the stigma of HIV is bad, I can only imagine what it is like in other countries. People are so scared of this virus, they want nothing to do with it, even if it means shunning children and their families.
You know that they don't die from AIDS, Noor. That was a very inspirational video. I've seen many like it. Children in all countries who have lost parents to HIV are treated poorly. But there is hope. We are starting to change opinions one person at-a-time. Its slow work, but it is also very rewarding work.
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