Life still difficult for HIV/AIDS affected kids

A doctor conducts healthcheck to a HIV-infected child in Giao Thuy District, Binh Dinh Province (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Children affected by HIV/AIDS continue to face
discrimination and other challenges despite significant gains made in efforts
to help them, officials said at a meeting on November 22. 

More
than 14,700 children affected by HIV/AIDS have received full healthcare,
education and nutritional assistance after a national action plan began
implementation three years ago.

The
2014-2020 has thus far
covered 70 percent of the targeted children.

The
plan defines children affected by HIV/AIDS disease as those who have contracted
HIV, those whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS, those living with HIV/AIDS
parents, and those with high risk of HIV/AIDS because their parents were
drug-users or commercial sex workers.

The
figures were revealed at the meeting organised in Hanoi by the Ministry of
Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) to summarise initial results of
the action plan.

MoLISA
Deputy Minister Dao Hong Lan said 248 of 345 centres across the country have
been equipped with essential skills to take care for children affected by
HIV/AIDS.

At
present, 84 percent of schools in the country were admitting children affected
by HIV/AIDS, Lan said.

Vietnam
now has about 21,000 children affected by HIV/AIDS, including 6,800 living with
HIV/AIDS.

Among
the goals set in the action plan are to provide , education and
nutritional assistance to 90 percent of affected children by 2020; to equip 90 percent
of centres with skills needed to care for children affected by HIV/AIDS; and to
have 100 percent of schools in the country admit children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Challenges
remain

Despite
the progress made, challenges remained in assisting children affected by
HIV/AIDS, Lan said.

Public
awareness of taking care of and protecting children affected by HIV/AIDS had
not improved as expected, she said, adding that children affected by the virus
and disease still faced discrimination.

Hoang
Dinh Canh, deputy head of the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control, said
lack of knowledgeable staff at HIV/AIDS child care centres was one of the
challenges.

The
meeting heard that 27 provinces and cities had failed to spend enough money on
caring for children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Task
force

Lan
said her ministry would work with the Health Ministry and the Ministry of
and Training to meet the national action plan’s targets.

A
task force with officials and experts from the three ministries would work to
outline the most effective model for supporting children affected by HIV/AIDS
in the remaining four years (2017-20), she said.

“There
would be more frequent dissemination of information to raise public awareness
and reduce discrimination in our society,” she said.-VNA