HIV/AIDS, Stigma and Children

A literature review

This powerful volume represents the broadest engagement with disability issues in South Africa yet. Themes include theoretical approaches to and representations of disability, governmental and civil society responses to disability, aspects of education as these pertain to the oppression / liberation of disabled people, social security for disabled people, the complex politics permeating service provision relationships, and consideration of disability in relation to human spaces - physical, economic and philosophical.

In 2002, the Human Sciences Research Council was commissioned by the WK Kellogg Foundation to develop and implement a five-year intervention project focusing on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in southern Africa. In collaboration with several partner organizations, the project currently focuses on how children, families and communities in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe are coping with the impact of HIV/AIDS. The aim of the project is to develop models of best practise so as to enhance and improve support structures for OVC in the southern African region as a whole.

Currently 6.4 million people in South Africa live with HIV, this figure represents a quarter of the burden of HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa and 18 per cent of the global burden. With this view, the South African National HIV Prevalence, Incidence and Behaviour Survey, 2012 is a crucial report for government, policy makers and other stakeholders as they work towards reducing the HIV epidemic in South Africa.

This 2012 HIV survey is the fourth in the series of national population-based surveys. The survey was
conducted from December 2011 to November 2012. As with previous surveys, it was designed to investigate the overall HIV prevalence, incidence and behaviour as well as social determinants that drive the epidemic. It also served to collect data to help monitor the National Strategic Plan 20072011 and set the baseline for the 20122016 NSP. This report is a must-read and essential for researchers who want to understand the HIV dynamics in South Africa.

Education is an essential ingredient of the socio-economic development of any country, and educators are a vital part of any nation's educational system. If educators are sick, or absent from school, or leave the profession, the nation stands to lose. Yet the health status of our educators may go unknown. Prior to this report, there were no primary level South African national data assessing the ill-health and attrition of educators. Rumours about their ill-health and reasons for attrition abounded. It is for this reason that the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) decided to commission the HSRC-led consortium to conduct this nation-wide research assessing the health status and attrition of our educators, with a focus on HIV/AIDS and its determinants.