Understanding community responses to the situation of children affected by AIDS : lessons for external agencies. Draft paper prepared for the UNRISD project HIV/AIDS and Development

This is a key report that documents community responses and coping mechanisms towards the HIV/AIDS pandemic in relation to children affected by AIDS (CABA) and orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Fostering families are under enormous strain and local initiatives at the community level have been little studied or documented, and few organisations have sought to encourage their development. The paper analyses some of these initiatives and encourages external agencies to support them through building the capacity of local responses rather than imposing external solutions