Blame & Banishment - MÃ©decins du Monde

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Blame and Banishment: The underground HIV epidemic affecting children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with the difficulties of socio-economic change and transition. These constraints, combined with widespread consumption of alcohol and drugs, reduced the capacity of many to protect their children. For some children from troubled families, the streets became their home or source of livelihood, and risk behaviours became a part of their daily lives. At their height, these street children were estimated to number a staggering one to four million. Today, while there are no reliable estimates on the numbers of children on the streets, the vulnerabilities of children and families remain largely the same. The current economic and political crises in the region have revealed fragile foundations. According to the World Bank, 9 some 50.1 million people are now estimated to be living beneath the poverty line. Social reforms have stalled and social welfare budgets are being cut back. A difficult political inheritance The second challenge of addressing the HIV epidemic in the region has been a political legacy of authoritarianism and control. Faced with an epidemic that mostly affects socially excluded populations such as drug users and sex workers, post-Soviet systems and mindsets have found it difficult to tailor inclusive responses to meet the specific needs of marginalized groups and those living with HIV. Rigid social controls have often led to denunciation and blame of those who fail to conform, or who are caught up in systemic failures. In these circumstances, the stigma and discrimination related to fear and ignorance about HIV find reinforcement in official attitudes of intolerance, and in existing public prejudice against those whose behaviour is seen as ‘anti-social’ or ‘immoral’. Children born to HIV-positive mothers suffer the consequences of these prejudices, experiencing a much higher likelihood than other children of being abandoned at a hospital, or being left to live in isolation at a specialized care institution. Negative attitudes and the denial of uncomfortable social realities lie at the root of children and young people’s vulnerability to HIV infection and continue to be major barriers to addressing the real needs of children and their families. Policies and programmes remain strongly influenced by the legacy of the past and continue to ignore clear evidence about what constitutes an effective response as well as the everyday realities of those affected by HIV. As a result, opportunities for progress are being missed, allocation of resources often fails to match needs, and interventions may even aggravate the problems they are intended to alleviate. Children and young people are being failed by this response. 4
Blame and Banishment: The underground HIV epidemic affecting children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia “Without children, it would be impossible to love humanity in the same F. M. Dostoevsky way...” © UNICEF Tajikistan © UNICEF Ukraine/2005/G.Pirozzi © UNICEF Tajikistan © R. Gamble © R. Gamble © UNICEF/NYHQ2005-1817/G. Pirozzi © UNICEF/NYHQ2005-1796/G.Pirozzi. Ukraine, 2005 5
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Blame & Banishment - MÃ©decins du Monde

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