HIV/AIDS

Fighting HIV/AIDS in Partnership with Communities

Save the Children envisions a world where children and families can live free of HIV infection and in which families that are affected by HIV/AIDS can live positively and productively without stigma and discrimination.

World AIDS Day 2012

In honor of World AIDS Day, read the moving story of Zeria, an HIV-positive mother, and her daughter Joylet, who was spared from contracting the virus thanks to Save the Children-funded, community-based counseling and services designed to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and AIDS. Learn more

HIV/AIDS Programs

Drawing on our global experience, Save the Children continually supports hundreds of thousands of children affected by HIV. Save the Children takes on a comprehensive approach in addressing HIV/AIDS for children, spanning from prevention to care and mitigation with a focus on orphans and vulnerable children; youth at risk; and Pediatric AIDS.

Working with families, community groups, local governments and nongovernmental organizations, Save the Children strengthens local capacities to protect vulnerable children, prevent the spread of HIV, and care for community members infected with HIV/AIDS. In order to ensure a comprehensive and sustainable response to the epidemic as well as mitigate stigma and discrimination, Save the Children integrates HIV throughout various sector programs in education, health, food security, and economic opportunities.

Save the Children supports youth in building playgrounds for orphans and vulnerable children at community-based childcare centers in Mozambique.

Orphans and Vulnerable Children

Save the Children provides comprehensive care and support for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) through nine programs across five countries, namely Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, and Haiti. Save the Children's programs respond to the needs of children affected by AIDS through a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach: building community capacity to provide basic safety and protection, psychosocial support, food security, economic strengthening, and access to basic health and education services. Our programs are tailored to meet the age-specific needs of the child affected by AIDS, and use whole child programming and family-centered approaches to ensure comprehensive needs are met and appropriate linkages to services and care are made.

Read More about our OVC Programs

Peer education and interpersonal communication help young men in Vietnam make informed decisions and practice healthful behaviors.

Youth at Risk

Save the Children addresses the prevention of HIV among youth through programming in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Georgia while taking youth prevention to a national scale in Bangladesh. Our youth prevention approach is based on an understanding of local epidemics and the factors increasing vulnerability and driving the spread of the disease. In concentrated epidemics (primarily Asia), our work focuses on young people at greatest risk based on geographic, demographic and behavioral considerations. In high prevalence settings, we target all youth, with particular attention to older orphans and vulnerable children. Save the Children is working to expand access to quality information and services, establish peer support networks, and ensure that services are youth friendly so young people can make healthy decisions and adopt protective practices. Mobilizing peers and influential adults such as parents, teachers, and traditional religious leaders, Save the Children is able to work with young people and their communities to increase knowledge and information, create livelihood opportunities, increase healthy behaviors, and reduce vulnerability.

Read More about our Youth Prevention Programs

HIV-positive expectant mother talks with a community counselor at a Save the Children drop-in-center in Ethiopia. Michael Bisceglie.

Pediatric AIDS and Mother-to Child Transmission

Save the Children addresses mother-to-child transmission of pediatric infection through a continuum that includes prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) and the identification and care of children known to be HIV positive. Through our programs, we address gender and stigma barriers to testing among women, improve case follow-up for HIV-exposed newborns, and enhance support for HIV-positive mothers. For HIV-infected children born to parents who do not know their status, we focus on developing interventions for earlier case finding through community health, nutrition and OVC programming. We are also testing new approaches to address nutritional needs of HIV positive children. Save the Children has implemented PMTCT program activities in Mozambique, Malawi, Ethiopia. and Myanmar, and continues to build an evidence base for community based prevention of mother to child transmission.

Read More about our PMTCT and Pediatric AIDS Programs

Last Updated November 2011