Building Resilience in Children Affected by HIV/AIDS

This handbook is aimed at people who live and work with children affected by HIV/AIDS. Originally developed in Namibia, it is intended to supplement and reinforce various training programmes on Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Namibia and other African countries.

The handbook aims to help parents, caregivers and teachers understand children who are caring for a sick parent or who have lost a parent. It provides practical advice on supporting children who have experienced loss, and suggests helpful discussions and games.

It also offers advice to teachers and caregivers on how to support children who have experienced loss and death in order to help them cope. In addition, it also provides ideas for discussions that can be held on a one-to-one basis in the child’s home or with a group of children in the classroom. According to the publishers it is neither a recipe for success nor a book of rules. Instead, this handbook offers a collection of ideas, theories, tasks and exercises that should help one to understand the behaviour and feelings of children affected by HIV/AIDS.

The book covers some of the following issues:

• What resilience is and how to build it in vulnerable children
• The economic and social impact of a dying and parent and how to deal with it
• How children can deal with being infected with HIV/AIDS
• Preparing for the loss of a parent
• Dealing with the loss of a parent
• How to help children with reactions such as clinging, nightmares, bed-wetting, aggression and helpless
• When to see a specialist
• Recognising and combating abuse or neglect
• Games and exercises to promote resiliency
• What the right of children are