USAID Helps to Find Homes for HIV+ Children
Tania, 10, a sensitive and lovely girl with curly hair, dreams of becoming a dancer. Another life-long dream of hers–having a family–was recently realized, thanks to the USAID-funded Families for Children Program. Not long ago, she and seven other HIV-positive children were placed with foster families—a first in Ukraine. Now settled with her foster family, Tania has confidence that her many other hopes and dreams will also come true.
Tania’s life story is similar to that of many HIV-positive kids. Having lost her birth-mother to AIDS in infancy, Tania has lived in government-run institutions ever since. She spent her first four years in a hospital, after which she was transferred to one of Ukraine’s orphanages for HIV-positive children where she stayed for six more long years.
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| Red Ribbon |
Earlier this year, personnel at the orphanage where Tania was staying took issue over the pending transfer of Tania and 22 other kids with HIV to boarding schools and institutions for children with disabilities. They approached USAID’s Families for Children Program (FCP) seeking advice and support.
FCP staff decided to pursue a pilot project and brought together representatives from regional branches of All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, as well as representatives from public social services centers, for a strategy development meeting. They decided to conduct a foster parent recruitment campaign among faith-based organizations, religious communities, people affected by HIV/AIDS and medical professionals to find foster families for the 23 HIV-positive children. FCP conducted intensive training on planning and implementing a foster parent recruitment campaign, developed information materials and distributed them among implementing agencies. Through the FCP grant program, several organizations were given small grants to conduct a public awareness campaign and recruit foster parents.
Already, two families have agreed to take eight children, including Tania, under foster care.
Holt International has enrolled these children into its sponsorship program, which will allow the families to receive additional resources for development and educational services for the children. To help assure adequate care for the children, Holt is also purchasing furniture and other supplies these families will require.
Meanwhile, the recruitment campaign continues. FCP engaged more organizations and agencies, improving the chance that more HIV-positive children from this and other orphanages will be placed in a family-type environment.
As of July 1, 2006, 1,192 Ukrainian children are HIV-positive. The HIV status of 4,492 other children, the majority of whom were born to HIV-positive mothers, are currently indeterminate until the reach 18 months of age and are tested. A full 20 percent of children born to HIV-infected mothers in Ukraine are abandoned in maternity hospitals and subsequently admitted to baby homes where they stay until age three. Then, they are transferred to orphanages for children from 3- to 6-years-old, and later to boarding schools.
In reality, institutions for children over 3 years of age are unwilling to accept HIV-positive children, so many older children remain in baby homes where they can receive medical treatment but have no access to education. Left alone or without sufficient attention, these children fall behind developmentally; in severe cases, they fail to thrive and risk death.
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