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VI. Conclusion

When it’s Friday, my heart becomes so sore.  Who will be looking after these children?  There’s no one, nothing at home.
—A school principal in Johannesburg , South Africa

Children in sub-Saharan Africa faced obstacles to education long before the HIV/AIDS epidemic began.  However, HIV/AIDS has exacerbated these obstacles by striking at children’s main source of material and emotional support for their education: their parents and extended families.  More than other infectious diseases, AIDS has the potential to erode entire extended families and to leave children with the burden of deep stigma and social isolation.  The traditional recourse for children whose parents are sick or deceased—their extended families and communities—is increasingly overstretched and unavailable in the era of HIV/AIDS.  The inaction of governments in the face of this overwhelming strain virtually ensures that AIDS-affected children will drop out or fall behind in school at disproportionate rates compared to their peers.

While the contribution of parents and extended families to children’s education may seem intuitively obvious, the testimony in this report deepens our understanding of the specific contributions parents and extended families make: providing financial support for education; offering an emotional refuge during non-school hours and providing help with homework; advocating for children’s right to education before school authorities, particularly in countries that levy fees for school enrollment, books, uniforms, examinations, and/or other services; and acting as a bulwark against rejection by the extended family and the community.  Many children told Human Rights Watch that the death of their parents marked the moment their extended family members or neighbors stopped looking out for them, and that foster parents favored the needs of their biological children over those of orphans in their care.  This helps to explain statistical surveys in heavily AIDS-affected areas showing that children who experience the sickness or death of a parent are more likely than their peers to drop out of school or fall behind.

The findings of this report argue strongly for governments to act to protect children deprived of parental care, and to recognize, regulate and support the impromptu strategies that communities have already developed to protect these children.  Governments must address the burdens faced not only by children, but by their caregivers and by CBOs who have stepped in to fill their parents’ shoes, in order to guarantee AIDS-affected children’s right to education.  Concrete actions such as protecting women from property-grabbing and taking expeditious steps to keep parents alive on antiretroviral treatment can help to ensure that AIDS-affected children enjoy their basic rights.  Enticing people to care for AIDS-affected children with the promise of financial rewards, or recruiting individuals from outside the community to volunteer time on behalf of orphans, are strategies with limited potential.  More fundamentally, governments must focus on children’s right to protection by giving legal effect to the innate generosity of caregivers and communities, and clearly spelling out their rights and responsibilities in law and policy.

As governments and multilateral donors establish policies to assist orphans and other children affected by HIV/AIDS, they must take urgent steps to ensure that these children enjoy their right to education on an equal basis with others.  In implementing their education policies, governments must also take special account of AIDS-affected children and address the particular vulnerabilities that prevent them from making reasonable progress through school.  Investing in programs that support AIDS-affected children in their efforts to attend and stay in school could be a signal achievement of the global struggle against HIV/AIDS.  Not doing so will only further marginalize this large and growing vulnerable population.