Sections

Responses

Children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS in a group home in Gdansk, Poland. Photo by Diez for UNDPI/WHO

In a news article dated 9 December 2004, UNICEF regional director Per Engebak had the following recommendations to improve the response to the OVC crisis:
  • Keep adults alive by improving access to antiretroviral therapy and raising awareness of HIV
  • A strong PMTCT programme, with new programmes like MTCT-Plus
  • Dedicate funds for OVC and scale up programmes which currently only see a small proportion of overall HIV/AIDS funding
  • Elimination of school fees and other barriers to education in Southern Africa
  • Combat poverty and conflict which exacerbate challenges of HIV/AIDS
  • Collaboration between national authorities, civil society and faith-based organisations to provide support services such as access to food, services and trauma counselling