The National Children’s Forum on HIV/AIDS
"Children can make a change – hear our voices!"
Co-ordinated by The Children’s Institute, UCT In collaboration with: Soul City, Children’s Resource Centre, the Dept of Health & the Joint Monitoring Committee on Children, Youth and Persons with Disability
Funded by: the Bernard van Leer Foundation (Holland) and the Dept of Health.
Children’s research facilitated by: Clacherty and Associates
The National Children’s Forum on HIV/AIDS Understanding the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in South Africa - The National Children’s Forum on HIV/AIDS was held in Cape Town between the 22nd and 24th August 2001. Ninety children from all over South Africa came together to talk to each other, to researchers and to decision makers about how HIV/AIDS impacts on their lives.
The 90 children were between the ages of 7 and 18 years and included children who had been infected through mother to child transmission and through sexual abuse, children who were caring for sick and dying parents, children heading households, children who had been forced to live on the streets, children living in children’s homes and hospices and children who had been orphaned by AIDS.
The objectives of the forum are:
· To produce a "memorandum of action" which summarises the issues raised by the children and ensures a commitment from decision-makers to address these issues.
· To increase awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in South Africa
· To provide feedback on the implementation of policies and programmes designed to address the impact of HIV/AIDS on children
· To provide input into the development of national policy and legislation relevant to children and families made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS
· To develop the capacity and will of key role players to engage children and youth in decision making processes at all levels
Over the course of the 3 day event, the children discussed how HIV/AIDS effects
them, the problems they face on a daily basis, who supports them and how they
cope. In preparation for their meeting with decision makers on the final day of the
forum, they discussed what Government and Members of Parliament could do to help them and their families.
Representatives from national Government Departments and Ministries and from National Parliament were given the opportunity to listen to what the children had to say and to engage with the children in meaningful discussions around the impact of HIV/AIDS on children.
The issues that were raised by the children reflect the poor implementation of existing policies and demand an immediate and practical response from decision makers and service providers.
The children’s life stories, artwork, essays, poetry and drama will continue to inform the work of the Children’s Institute in our mission to ensure informed decision-making and to promote the realisation of children's rights in South Africa. these are some of the things the children had to say … The children spoke about how they face verbal abuse and discrimination on a regular basis In schools:
"The children bully and tease you and that makes you sad. They push you and they don’t like me. This makes me want to stop going to school, because my mom has AIDS."
"The children don’t stand next to me. They say I’m dirty, they don’t want to hold my hand" "I can’t go to school because my mother can’t afford to pay my school fees. This has been for three years now. Each time I go, my teachers send me away."
"I had to come home and look after the children, wash, clean and I could not do my homework. When I go to school I used to get beaten because my homework was not done."
At health care facilities:
"While she was passing she saw a nurse who tested her for HIV/AIDS now she was greeting this nurse and the nurses pointed her in front of the people saying she is the one."
"Sometimes people are turned away by nurses who tell them there’s no medicine or they should come the following day"
"Sometimes they get angry when we ask questions about HIV – they say we are too young to ask."
In their communities:
"People think it is a punishment for being naughty. Children laugh."
"People do not want to see her, they don’t want to touch her. They swear at her. They gossip about her and they tell others that she is living with HIV."
"If you are HIV+, some taxi’s don’t allow you in. You get embarrassed because everyone is watching. People move away from you in a taxi and they wipe the seat. People gossip about you. They call you different names, like 4x4, pin number or lotto"
"Some churches think that a person with AIDS is a sinner and they gossip and don’t love you like before."
"Priests don’t want to have HIV+ people in the church and don’t even want to discuss it in their sermons and most people believe in their preachers."
"People pretend to love the child. They go and buy her sweets and later take her to a place where they are going to kill the child. They treat the child badly, they do not give the child food, they give her poison, because they do not love the child. They do not respect the child."
Sexual abuse is a major concern to children who attended the forum "When your brother, father, uncle has HIV positive, they are sleeping with us because they think that HIV positive in cleaned by children."
"A mother goes to work, leaving a child with the father. The father touches the child (a girl). The girl was crying when the mother got home. When she heard the story, she could not believe that her AIDS/HIV infected husband did that."
Many spoke of feelings of sadness, helplessness and desperation "If you are HIV+ you want to commit suicide"
"Sometimes if there is someone living with AIDS in the family you feel sad and scared. You wish you can die. You become a problem / a burden"
"And you always think that they don’t care about you anymore because you have AIDS."
"Children feel bad, they blame themselves. They do not understand, do not want to share utensils with other people, alienate people."
Some of the other problems faced by the children Transport: "The clinics are too far from our houses and we have no money for
transport." Housing:"I need a house to stay in because the one we stay in now is a mud one and not comfortable during the winter and rainy season" Basic services: "Squatter areas are unhygienic with no running water or sanitation"
"We need water- because water comes out only once a week"
Violence: "I feel bad because I don’t have a mother or a father. My mother died of AIDS. My father is dead – he was shot."
The children also spoke about their strengths and the people and things that help them cope "My grandmother - who tries everything to get me all my needs and she’s free to talk to me about even my most private things."
"Confidence in myself is my best strength."
"I love my teacher because she is motivating and encouraging me to work hard for my grade 12 pass mark"
"My heart – it shows I am alive and not dead"
"People should encourage children to go to church – you get more alive with God"
"I have an envelope left to me by my mother and she left me her ring. When I see that letter I feel encouraged and motivated, asking me to be best mannered as I was when I was left behind. I am a changed person because of that letter. I feel like I can jump and touch the cloud"
The children’s messages to others "Some people treat them as if they are a scrap of paper. You must not treat him like a scrap of paper because it might happen to you."
"Help the kids that are suffering because their parent’s have died. Look after them. Help them with food if they need food. Give them something to drink.’’
"Stop abusing and raping children"
"People must stop gossiping, hating other people and making fun"
The children discussed and drew pictures of what they needed most from Government " I need a grant to help my mother’s sister who has also got her own children to raise – help her get something in order to raise me also. The government can help the aunt to buy food, clothes, to pay for school fees."
"Person to look after my granny who is sickly. When I’m at school she is left to look after herself" "The government must support organizations, provide them with money because they give us food, clothes, and help us with cleaning materials. They do counselling, they teach us about relationships at home, how to communicate, how to protect ourselves, they teach us about HIV/AIDS."
"The government should be better equipped with their dispensary for common illnesses and move to attacking HIV/AIDS"
"I wish to get the guns from the government so as in order I will shoot the rapists"
"Please can I have a doll and a dummy for my doll, because then I can play with my doll in my mother’s room and near her grave. The doll will be my friend because I don’t have friends because they say I am dirty"
"Dear persons, Please give us medicine to make the sick better, because we don’t like people to die."
What the children said about their experience of the National Children’s Forum "What made me happy is that what I came for was achieved which is to talk about things I’ve kept inside me and now I’m okay. I know around the country there are other children like me. I learnt not to keep my problems inside but to talk to someone you trust. I met new friends from different places."
"My only upsetting thing is my upset stomach"
"I feel happy about the information I will take back to my project and especially my younger sister – "it is not only us that don’t have parents but there were others there"
"Before we met the government people we felt very down hearted. Now we have hope that things will be better for us."
The report on the National Children’s Forum is currently being compiled. For a copy of the report or for more information on the Forum, contact Sonja Giese at the Children’s Institute, UCT on email: [email protected] or ph: (021) 685 4053, 082 8707345, fax: 689 5403.