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Impact of Parental HIV/AIDS Deaths on African children and families

Impact of Parental HIV/AIDS Deaths on African children and families. Honors Project 2007. Lindsay Stortz. Why This?. My experiences living in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya and starting my AIDS organization.

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Impact of Parental HIV/AIDS Deaths on African children and families

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  1. Impact of Parental HIV/AIDS Deaths on African children and families Honors Project 2007. Lindsay Stortz.

  2. Why This? • My experiences livingin the slums of Nairobi,Kenya and starting my AIDS organization. • Evidential foundationfor hospice program inCameron being startedby nurse NdikintumGeorge My Friend Nora George, a nurse in Cameroon Dire and Growing Need

  3. Sub-Saharan Africa & Cameroon • Orphans account for 15% of all children in Eleven nations. • 20 million childrenorphaned by 2010 • Cameroon has an HIV Prevalence of 5-9% UNAIDS, 2004

  4. Questions • When an African child loses her parents, what happens to the child and to the family? • How do the economic difficulties that these children face impact their ability to grieve the loss of their parent? • What is being done to help These children? • What more should be done?

  5. Method • Impact to the child and family • Used search term “AIDS orphans” • Read and analyzed all of the research. • Impact on the child’s grief • Used search term “childhood bereavement” • Read and analyzed all of the research. • Included research on African culture and how it may impact the grief response of the child.

  6. Social Impact • 90% of orphaned are cared for in extended families • May be abandoned by extended family • May be maltreated • May face stigma in • wider society

  7. Economic impact • Adoptive households more likely to be poor. • Caregiver likely to be elderly, female, HIV positive, which are risk factors for extreme poverty • Unable to afford school fees • Child Labor, sex work • More likely to be malnourished

  8. Childhood Grief Response Normal Complicated • Sad • Angry • Guilty • May start acting younger than they are • Will maintain a bond with deceased parent through memory and being “watched over” • Interferes with Life • Symptoms of PTSD • Overwhelming guilt • Suicidal thoughts • Blames self for death

  9. The Tasks of Childhood Grief • Understand the death • Have their fears and anxieties addressed • Reassurance they are not to blame • Listened to and understood • Feelings validated. • Process their emotions of sadness, guilt, anger, etc.

  10. Conclusion • Socioeconomic problems put children at greater psychological risk • Maltreatment puts children at greater psychological risk • Combination of these factors, plus the grief the child is facing can lead to behavioral and emotional problems during childhood and into adulthood

  11. Interventions • Criteria: culturally appropriate, affordable, family-based • Socioeconomic • Capacity Building • Counselors & Psycho-education • Memory Boxes • Succession Planning • Support Groups

  12. Limitations of The Research • Africa is a very big and very diverse place! In Cameroon, 200 different Languages are spoken! • English only • Lack of available research on: • grief of African children • Interventions in Africa • Double Orphans

  13. Want to get involved?? • World Vision: www.worldvision.org • Fahari Ministries: Kenya • AIDS alliance of Durham: www.aas-c.org • DATA-Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa: data.org • For more information visit www.unaids.org and KnowHivAids.org

  14. Acknowledgements • Eric Stortz, my wonderful husband, for his patience and for helping me get through it! • Dr. Miles, my honors advisor, for all of her advice and encouragement • George of Cameroon for his Commitment and his Help in teaching me About Cameroon, his nation.

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