Older women provide the backbone of AIDS care but their role as carers of people living with HIV and children orphaned by AIDS is neither recognised nor supported, says HelpAge International on World AIDS Day.
In two new reports launched on World AIDS Day, Stronger together and Committed to caring, HelpAge International estimates that around half of all older people in severely affected areas now care for adult children living with HIV and/or children orphaned by AIDS.
UNICEF figures show that the number of children orphaned by AIDS currently stands at 15 million and is forecast to rise to 24 million by 2010, increasing the burden of care placed on older people.
Stronger together looks at the role older people play in the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. The report highlights the fact that 40-60% of orphaned children not living with a surviving parent in Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Namibia are cared for by their grandmothers.
Committed to caring focuses on AIDS care in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The report found that 62% of parents in Cambodia and 70% in Thailand lived with a child prior to their death from an AIDS-related illness.
65-year-old Youem from Cambodia lives with her husband, nephew, and three grandchildren aged 4, 5, and 6. Yoeum's oldest grandchild, a boy, is HIV positive. He was diagnosed after he became sick two years ago. Yoeum has been his primary carer since then.
In a Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS in 2001, UN member states formally recognised the role played by older people, and pledged to adjust and adopt economic and social development policies to respond to the specific needs of older carers.
Six years on, more and more governments and agencies understand that in order to reach vulnerable children their carers have to be targeted. Yet few national policies reflect the needs of older carers and only a relatively small number of NGOs and community-based organisations address them.
"Older people are being openly being discriminated against by policy makers," says Richard Blewitt, Chief Executive Officer of HelpAge International. "There is a global scandal around the continuing neglect of heroic grandmothers caring for people living with HIV and children orphaned by AIDS. Very few resources are being provided to those nurturing, loving and caring, often in the face of great adversity."
HelpAge International is calling on governments to act now by:
* providing social protection measures to mitigate against the economic drain caused by taking on caring responsibilities
* including older people in efforts to scale-up universal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment by 2010
* counting older people in statistics and data collection so the HIV response is relevant and effective.
"HelpAge International advocates for social protection measures such as a pension, child grant or carer's allowance," says Richard Blewitt.
"Research has shown that such measures can make a huge difference to older people and their families, by supporting them in their care role and breaking the cycle of poverty handed down from generation to generation."
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
