OVC Support Toolkit  >  Introduction  >  The Situation 

The Situation of Families and Communities

As families and communities profoundly affect the children and young people growing up in them, the situation facing families and communities influences the situation facing children and young people . See also the situation facing countries and regions.

Key points about the situation affecting families and communities are that:

1. Families and communities remain the main caring environment for most children. Wherever possible siblings within one family should stay together.

2. HIV/AIDS is dramatically increasing the burden of care in families and communities. This burden falls mainly on women.

3. The nature of HIV/AIDS and the way it is spread means that HIV diagnosis can provoke tensions within family relationships.

4. The emergence of child-headed households in rural Africa is a new phenomenon as a result of HIV/AIDS. It shows the strain being placed on extended families and communities.

There are many ways in which HIV/AIDS affects families, including:

• Increased need for care within families affected by HIV/AIDS-related illness and death. This burden of care falls mainly on women and children.
• Accusations about who is to "blame" for the illness entering the family and any subsequent deaths. Because of the ways in which HIV/AIDS spreads, this may place severe strain on marriage and other family relationships.
• "Sibling separation" of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. This may occur in order to allow the extended family to cope with the physical needs of the remaining children more effectively. However, this is often against the wishes of both sick parents prior to their death and of the children.
• Disputes over inheritance of property and rights and responsibilities in relation to orphaned children.

In many communities, for example in Africa, traditional practice has been for orphaned children to be absorbed into the extended family. However, HIV/AIDS has been putting considerable strain on this approach. In some cases it has been unable to cope due to:

• The sheer number of children having to be cared for by the extended family.
• Loss of active adults able to share the burden of this form of care.
• The economic cost of providing such care combined with increasing poverty in communities as a result of HIV/AIDS.
• Increasing individualism and the nuclear nature of families as a result of adopting Western lifestyles, particularly in urban settings.
• Taboos associated with wills and planning for death. Parental wishes expressed prior to death carry a great deal of weight in many cultures. However, these wishes are often not spoken or written down.

Families and households

Many people use the terms families and households as if they were the same thing. However, this is not the case. In many countries, families are very extensive and include all people that a person is related to, not just those that they live with. A household can be defined as a group of people who live and eat together.

These are households which are "headed" by a child, often an older child/young person. These have been widely documented in families affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly in rural areas and are often taken as a sign of severe strain on the ability of the extended family to cope. However, they could be considered an extension of the extended family/community coping mechanisms, as many of these households report supportive contact with members of the extended family.

Changes reported as a result of the impacts of HIV/AIDS on children, families and communities include increased numbers of street children and street vendors. In addition, it has been documented that HIV/AIDS can have a severe economic impact on poor families within a community, even if there is no-one within the family infected with HIV. In situations where poor people survive by providing wage labour for richer community members, HIV within the richer families may mean they require less wage labour. This can have a devastating economic impact on poorer families.

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