A Study On The Status Quo Of Living And Obtaining Rescue Of Children Affected By AIDS In A City In Hubei Province

Objective:to understand the situation of children affect by AIDS on life, psycho-social issues, family, and access to support; to understand the implementation status of the policies on children affected by AIDS in the sample city, and to develop recommendations for further strengthening the support of children affected by AIDS.Method:A cross-sectional survey was conducted by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Self-developed questionnaires for children affected by AIDS at the age of7-17years old, and for guardians of all children affected by AIDS at the age of0-17years old were used for quantitative survey on the situation of children affected by AIDS, psychological state, as well as relationship with care givers, and the situations of their foster families. In-depth interviews to insiders from multiple sectors including the sample city education, civil affairs, and health were used for qualitative survey on the local policy and its implementation on children affected by AIDS. Quantitative data analysis was conducted with Epi data3.1software for database and SPSS18.0software for analysis. Chi-square test, t-test, F-test, fisher’exact method and other methods for statistical analysis were used to quantitative data, and direct classification was used for qualitative data.Result:1. Generally, China’s support policy for children affected by AIDS is gradually improving. The target groups, supporting items, and life allowance standards have been clearly defined. Special annual central financial allocation for the policy implementation has been provided. The local matching funds are also provided by Hubei provincial government and the matching request was put into local policy developed for supporting children affected by AIDS. The policies are implemented in the sample city according to the provincial policy implementation plan.2.52children at the age of7-17years old affected by AIDS were interviewed in this research. The sex ratio of the interviewed children is around1:1.31of them have both parents.7children are double orphan. The majority of them are at the age of7-12years old.52children are going school. Their weight and height indicators are normal. Generally, children’s psychological status is healthy with positive and confident, though small proportion of children has some negative emotions.3.10families have urban residential hukou registration, the average household income is12,000yuan/year.52families have rural residential hukou registration and the average household income is10,490.2yuan/year. Comparing to the local statistical departments published urban residents per capita disposable income and rural per capita net income, although different definitions, it preliminary indicates the income gap between families affected by AIDS with other families, wider gap between the families with urban hukou registrations.4. Most of the interviewed children received life allowance through family living assistance.75%of the interviewed children reported that they received family living assistance which improved their basic life with increased meat and eggs intake frequency.59.6%of the interviewed children reported that they received the educational assistance, with the highest coverage among junior secondary school and lowest coverage among senior high school or vocational school.49interviewed children enrolled in the new rural medical cooperative insurance (NCMS). Children with medical insurance used medical treatment slightly more than children without medical insurance. Further analysis revealed that single orphans had the least access to life assistance, educational assistance and NCMS. Living assistance effectively improved the psychosocial situation of children especially to girls.Discussion1. The survey revealed that all orphans received the life allowance of600yuan or1,000yuan per month, which indicate the full implementation of national orphan support policy. The other children affected by AIDS did not receive this assistance; most of them received much less subsidy through family assistance by the local government. This shows that local government didn’t fully implement the national support policy for children affected by AIDS which request the same level of life assistance as orphans. The main reason of not being fully implemented is lack of both central and local financial support. Children affected by AIDS are still facing financial difficulties. 2. Local educational assistance for the children affected by AIDS was provided through the implementation of the "two exemptions and one subsidy" educational assistance policy. A part of children also received education subsidy from social organizations. Children in senior high or above didn’t receive much educational assistance and local government has not developed educational support policy for children beyond junior high.3. In the health care, the vast majority of the children have joined the NCMS, are able to get basic health care, though there are small part of children with serious illnesses still face difficulties and timely medical treatment because of family financial difficulties.4. The survey shows that girls and boys who didn’t receive life assistance have different psychological status. Girls had lower scores. Boys and girls who received life assistance have same level of psychological score. Among all the interviewed girls, the ones who received life assistance have much higher score on all6inside and outside dimensions including the mood, stress, health perception, behavior, social contact and resilience to discrimination. This may reveal that girls are more sensitive to life assistance.Conclusions and suggestion1. Local policies and financial support make sure the effectively implementation of the national policy. It is suggested to develop the local policy with increased local financial input for the better care of the Children affected by AIDS, especially for children who lost single parent or living with both sick parents.2. Multi-sectorial linkage rescue mechanism in the sample city plays important role in the implementation the policy. It is recommended to develop more multi-sectorial rescue mechanism.3. Children beyond compulsory education stage need more educational support. It is recommended to further strengthen the policies on educational assistance for these group of children.4. Life and educational assistance could effectively improve the living conditions and psychological conditions of children affected by AIDS. It is recommended to develop the local implementation plan or programs, to expand the coverage of the existing aid policy.