DURBAN STATEMENT ON CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS AND HIV

The The Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS and The Teresa Group hosted the just ended "Children and HIV" Symposium from the 15th to 16th of July, 2016 in Durban South Africa. This was an affiliated event of the 21st International AIDS Conference. The meeting released the following Statement  on Children and Adolescents regarding HIV;

DURBAN STATEMENT ON CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS AND HIV

We, civil society organizations working on behalf of children and adolescents and their families, urge national governments to ensure the following five global targets1 are achieved as policies are set, resources allocated and programs designed to address HIV and AIDS in their respective countries:
3. HIV-sensitive Care, Support & Social Protection:
Commit to ensuring 75% of children, adolescents and their parents living with and affected by HIV
receive comprehensive care and support – including social and child protection.
Comprehensive care and support, including social and child protection, have been shown to
both improve adherence and retention for children and parents and to enable HIV-affected
children to achieve their developmental potential. New evidence also shows that comprehensive
social protection—providing some form of cash transfer in combination with care and support
interventions such as parental monitoring, teacher support, adolescent-friendly clinics and peer
group activities (sometimes known as “cash plus care”)—improves adolescent adherence and
reduces their risk behaviour.
4. Supporting Caregivers so Children and Adolescents can Thrive:
Commit to strengthening the capacity of families, the community-level child care workforce, and
the social welfare workforce, so that together they can meet the developmental needs of children
living with, and affected by HIV, from pregnancy, to early childhood, and into adolescence.
We recognize the critical roles that families and other caregivers play in caring for HIV-affected
children and adolescents – including fostering healthy growth and development. We must ensure
programming helps family caregivers to deal with stresses & support children at each stage of
development into adolescence. This requires scale-up of caregiver/parenting support programs,
integrated as part of health, education and social welfare systems.
5. Stigma Elimination:
Commit to ensuring that all children living with and affected by HIV are free from stigma and
discrimination due to their HIV status and/or that of their caregivers.
HIV-related stigma and discrimination cause severe psychological distress among children,
and can prevent access to education, treatment, and care. Children orphaned by HIV, and those
living with HIV positive caregivers, experience greater stigma and bullying than their peers. Other
groups of children being discriminated against include children of parents of key populations, key
population adolescents, and children and adolescents with disabilities. Governments must work
with all key stakeholders to ensure that safe and non-discriminatory environments are created in
health facilities, community organizations, educational settings and more broadly in society as a
whole.