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Summary: This paper discusses the initiation of a project
in central China through the use of children’s
research as a foundation for understanding
children’s perspectives, problems and issues.
This paper discusses the initiation of a project in central China through the
use of children’s research as a foundation for understanding children’s
perspectives, problems and issues. This region of China was severely
affected by HIV/AIDS through bad practice in blood-buying from poor rural
farmers in the mid-1990s. Now many adults are sick and dying, resulting in
a large number of children affected by HIV/AIDS and leaving many
orphans. The epidemic in an adjacent part of central China has received a
great deal of attention. Many children affected and orphaned by AIDS
have been placed in institutional care even though their grandparents and
other relatives are alive and apparently prepared to care for them. In the
area that is the subject of this paper and children’s research, the
circumstances of children has been much less noticed. In order to develop
a project in the area, Save the Children promoted rights-based
approaches, focusing on the best interests of children, and looking at
institutional care as a last resort. To initiate the project, following some
basic research with adults, a group of children mostly affected by HIV/AIDS
were recruited through local partners (local government). They discussed
their issues, developed an interview schedule and conducted research.
The preliminary findings of the project are reported in this May 2004 paper,
along with an outline of the proposed multi-sectoral and multi-agency
intervention. Their main issues included access to education and
pressures to study, health problems in their family, uncertainty over their
future, and intre-family tensions and problems. There was also major
problems of stigma and discrimination. A report of children’s research (A
Strange Illness) and a book of their photographs and stories is to be
issued in mid-2005, including how the participatory processes provided
psycho-social support and promoted resilience.Owner: Andy West and Kate Wedgwoodpdf: www.crin.org/docs/children_aids_crin.doc