Social safety nets, HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in Quthing, Lesotho: an examination of coping strategies and how communities survive

摘要

AbstractudThis dissertation explores four key questions within the HIV/AIDS paradigm1 and theudimpact it is having on orphans and vulnerable children in the district of Quthing, Lesotho.udThese questions are: What is the status of social safety nets? How are communitiesudsurviving with the growing number of orphans and vulnerable children? What might beudthe early warning signs of community breaking points as a new category of child-headedudhousehold emerges? What are the human drivers of the pandemic in terms of behaviourudand attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children, and sex; and in termsudof reasons why people are not heeding the warning signs and adopting behaviour change?udThe findings of the dissertation reveal that communities are overwhelmed with theuddemands placed on them to support orphans and vulnerable children to the point whereudculture, traditions, and society at large are showing early warning signs of irreversibleudstrain. Despite the efforts of government, donors, the humanitarian sector and theudcommunities themselves, awareness of HIV/AIDS is not translating into behaviouraludchange and as such the spread of the virus continues unabated among the youngest andudmost vulnerable groups.ud1 The set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for theudcommunity that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.udii