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Dr. Jane Aronson's Call for the end of Stigma

This press statement was issued by Dr. Jane Aronson, Founder and CEO of the Worldwide Orphans Foundation (WWO), on the New York Times article on barring of HIV-positive orphaned children from school in Vietnam

 

The Oct. 14 article, “Exiled from School, H.I.V.-Infected Orphans Learn a Bitter Lesson,” in The New York Times recounts the painful denial of HIV-positive orphaned children into school after a storm of protests by the parents of schoolchildren. The reactions of Vietnamese parents to the HIV-positive orphans reminded me of American parents’ initial reaction to Ryan White, a courageous HIV-positive boy. Ryan, too, faced discrimination because of his HIV-positive status and his school tried to keep him from attending with other children. That was 1985; today, we know the truth about AIDS.

 

Building the community’s trust and support is key in ensuring that children with and without HIV/AIDS attend school together. The New York Times article fails to mention the enormously successful grassroots efforts taking root across the country to dispel misconceptions about HIV/AIDS and let parents know that there is no danger in having their children learn and play with children living with HIV.

Since 2006, Worldwide Orphans Foundation’s Vietnam country office has led grassroots outreach efforts to mobilize community support for HIV-positive children from Ba Vi Center, a local orphanage, to attend their local public school. WWO spearheaded the formation of a broad coalition of respected community and government leaders, orphanage staff, and school officials to build support for the children with HIV. Community leaders canvassed door-to-door in 2007 and 2008, speaking to parents to address their concerns and allay fears about the safety of their children being in the same classroom with children infected by HIV. HIV-positive children periodically engaged in school activities and participated in holiday celebrations, art and music classes, life skills classes, and cultural activities with other schoolchildren.

Within nine months of the outreach effort, community support for the HIV-positive children’s attendance at school increased from 2 percent to 90 percent acceptance, according to a WWO survey.

Still, the grassroots effort has been a challenge; but with time, we anticipate a gradual acceptance of the children with HIV at local schools. At the start of the school year on Sept. 7, children from the Ba Vi Center did not attend classes due to a small, vocal group in the community who resisted. WWO and coalition members are now working with Vietnamese officials to facilitate the proper paperwork to enroll the children into school as soon as possible. For now, the children will continue to take classes at the orphanage with a teacher provided by the school.

 

Change doesn’t happen overnight. The good news is that we know that community outreach efforts work. Expanding orphaned children’s access to education is one of WWO’s community-based approaches to give these bright children an opportunity to reach their full potential and become healthy, independent, productive members of their communities and world. Collectively, we must redouble our efforts to dispel misconceptions about HIV/AIDS and fight stigma and discrimination associated with the disease to ensure that children with HIV have the right to receive an education as any child.

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For more information on WWO, please visit www.wwo.org or call (973) 763-9961.

Media Contact: Shanta Bryant Gyan 646-290-8211• shanta@sbgcommunications.com



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