According to Dube (2009), the world is host to 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS
with at least 24 million persons already having been lost to the disease. Communities are also
raising approximately 15 million children orphaned by HIV and AIDS and taking care of
many who are critically ill with the disease. According to UNAIDS (2003), all over the
world, the AIDS pandemic has a profound impact and brings out both the best and the worst
in people. It triggers the best when individuals and groups come together in solidarity to
combat government, community and individual denial and to offer support and care to people
living with the virus, including children. It brings out the worst when individuals are
stigmatised and ostracized by their loved ones, their families and their communities, and are
discriminated against individually and institutionally (UNAIDS, 2003).
Children infected with HIV live in many different circumstances. Some live with their
biological parent or parents, others with older sisters and brothers, grandmothers, uncles and
aunts (Mbambo, 2004). Some children live with formal and informal foster parents who are
not family members, or have been adopted, or are living in a shelter or children?s home such
as Epworth Youth and Child Care Centre [EYCCC] in Lambton, Germiston in South Africa,
which forms the basis of this study. Furthermore, some children live in child-headed
households and have to take care of younger siblings, sometimes with little support from
others such as neighbours, community members or social workers (Mbambo, 2004). These
children, when identified, may also be placed in a children?s home as a form of alternative
care, in order to have their physical, cognitive, emotional and social needs attended to.