1557.5.2 Issues for HIV/AIDS Orphans
The issues that arise for the development of support to HIV/AIDS orphans are
extensive and can only be outlined in this chapter. They include:
First, needs to consistently translate national level legislation and requirements
into local level delivery systems that are sufficiently well resourced and targeted
to address the problems of HIV/AIDS orphans. This is especially important where
discrimination, superstition and exclusion persist.
Second, current interventions mainly focus on infected children and orphans.
However, many other children are affected by HV/AIDs including those whose
have one or more parents infected. Although those infected can get free anti-viral
treatment, they confront heavy economic burdens, especially in rural areas which
are without a minimum subsistence guarantee system. They cannot get fixed help
from government, and temporary subsidies fail to address the long-term difficul-
ties they experience.
Third, high rates of HIV/AIDS infections in poor areas are especially prob-
lematic. In these areas local governments have to be subsidized from higher lev-
els since they cannot collect enough taxes to provide services. Funds from the
Ministry of Civil Affairs allocated from lottery public welfare funds and local gov-
ernment funding may be insufficient to meet needs. Special funds are needed for
helping children who are affected by HIV/AIDS that can be allocated in relation to
needs.
Fourth the reintegration of HIV/AIDS orphans into mainstream society is not
simply about meeting material needs for food and shelter and educational costs.
Giving money to orphans to make them to go to school is not meant to accom-
plish the task of social integration. Some of the problems can be illustrated by the
experience of a case in the Daliang mountains in the Yi region in Liangshan. The
programme selected 15 orphans from poor families and sent these children to a vil-
lage in Shanxi where there was a NGO programme to support educational develop-
ment. An administrator was arranged for take care of these children’s everyday life.
The NGO took 10,000 RMB for every child for the programme and the children
were allowed to return home once during the two years. The leader of this project
argued that “the parents of these children will be very happy for their children can
study in a more developed areas, and these children will make great progress, they
can speak standard Putonghua but cannot speak their native language properly”
(Ye 2008 ). The problems with this approach are those of a balance between the
benefits of being educated in a more educational advanced area, and gaining the
ability to speak potonghua, but losing connections with Yi language and culture. It
is also a model that cannot easily be increased in scale at affordable costs.
Fifth, because of peoples’ fear of HIV/AID, orphans are often subject to dis-
crimination and exclusion in their living conditions and their educational experi-
ence. This fear, discrimination and exclusion come from other people and society
and this has a huge negative impact on the mental health of orphans. Psychological