HIV-sensitive social protection services in mitigating the challenges and vulnerability of the children affected by HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Children are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of HIV/AIDS. This paper reports on the challenges faced by children due to their or their parents’ HIV/AIDS status and the role of HIV-sensitive social protection in mitigating these challenges. We conducted 32 semi-structured in-depth interviews – 15 with children affected by HIV/AIDS (aged 13–18 years) and 17 with parents of children aged 10–12 years. We found children face significant challenges associated with poverty, gender norms, stigma, and lack of social support which affect their rights to education, shelter, treatment, and food. HIV-sensitive social protection packages such as conditional cash transfer, counselling, and community sensitization help continuation of education, facilitate access to treatment and social protection services, reduce stigma in the community and improve wellbeing of children. Children’s accessibility to these services was limited due to distance, transport expenses, poor health conditions of the parents, gender issues, and stigma. HIV-sensitive social protection is effective in improving children’s wellbeing. Continuation and expansion of HIV-sensitive social protection packages including conditional cash transfer, psychosocial counselling, and community sensitization and life skills training to facilitate HIV/AIDS affected children’s wellbeing and inclusion is recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• AIDS
• children
• HIV-sensitive social protection
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgments

This study was completed with technical support from the UNICEF Bangladesh. We thank the four organizations who were providing the HSSP and helped us to access the participants. We also thank the National AIDS/STD Programme (NASP), Bangladesh, for attending proposal presentation and providing comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author’s contributions

IM, TO, and MZU conceptualized the research. IM was the PI. SC & TA supervised data collection. TA, SC, and IM analysed the data. TA wrote the first draft. IM critically reviewed and improved the draft. IM and TA addressed all peer review comments. All authors read the final manuscript and approved it.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from IM, the principal investigator of this study on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the UNICEF Bangladesh country office (contract no. 43167736).