When the safety net fails: Children in West and Central Africa and risk of HIV infection

““Know your response” means knowing who is vulnerable to HIV infection and providing services to mitigate this vulnerability and to assist those who have already acquired HIV. To explore this,we spoke to more than 1,000 children and adolescents aged 8 to 20 years living in communities severely affected by war and displacement, child trafficking, or high HIV mortality – communities in which the social safety net had been severely disrupted. We enquired about their mental health and their difficult and joyful life experiences . The detailed study reports are available with Plan West Africa .
The results of our “Psychosocial Support Study” are heart
wrenching. We heard story after story of severe abuse and
neglect, of children who had lost the protection of their
families and their communities. We talked to children who
felt lonely, depressed, and excluded. Many of them were
suicidal. In this publication we summarise how the experience of these children relates to their vulnerability to HIV infection – how they have become children affected by HIV. We offer recommendations for appropriate psychosocial support services to decrease their vulnerability.”