Without adequate care and support, children experience losses in health, nutrition, education, affection, security and protection. They suffer emotionally from rejection, discrimination, fear, loneliness and depression. Accomplishments in child survival that were made over the past two decades are endangered. In the absence of caring adults to protect them, and as they struggle to survive, children who experience increased poverty, abandonment, rejection or discrimination, or an added burden of responsibility for themselves and other family members, are at increased risk for abuse and exploitation. Children s rights are ignored as family property is taken, siblings are separated, the children suffer physical and sexual abuse, or the children become homeless.
Girls marry at very young ages in order to have a home.
When their rights to survival, development, protection and participation are realized, children are less likely to find themselves in situations involving a high risk of HIV infection. Protecting children from situations where they are known to be at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation, and where intravenous drug use is common, directly reduces their risk of infection. Lasting solutions for the next generation must address both protection from HIV and protection of children s rights. Direct links from this site lead to an array of information resources for parents and other adults, including care givers, researchers and health care professionals. Challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean, Facts and Figures, and briefing papers on children and HIV and young people and HIV, updated for the 1999 campaign.