Policy Brief: Household mobility and school drop-out in orphans and vulnerable children

Past studies have found that orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV (OVC) in sub-Saharan Africa are at increased risk of moving household and of school drop-out. However, the relationship between child migration and school enrolment has not been established. We conducted secondary analysis of prospective data, collected from 2002–2006, to investigate whether children who recently migrated were at increased risk of dropping out of school. We also investigated associations between orphanhood, type of caregiver and school drop-out, and whether any such associations are explained by an increased risk of migration among affected children.

The questions:

•Are children who move household at increased risk of dropping out of school?

• Does moving household mediate the relationship between orphan hood and school drop-out?

The research:

• 2002–2006: Enrolled and followed up 645 children aged 6–18 as part of a cohort study.

• Included orphaned and non-orphaned children.

• Collected data on type of caregiver, school drop-out and migration.

• All analyses control for age, gender, socio-economic status, and community type.

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Policy Brief: Substance abuse and education in orphans and vulnerable children

Alcohol and drug use amongst adolescents and young adults in sub-Saharan Africa is a potential problem, particularly among orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), and may be ameliorated by school enrollment, but there are no published findings from Zimbabwe on this. We collected data from 5,297 adolescents and young adults from 2009–2011 to investigate whether orphans and/or children caring for a family member with HIV are at increased risk of alcohol, tobacco and drug use.

The questions:

• Are OVC at an increased risk for smoking and alcohol and drug* use?

• Do OVC who practice substance use have greater HIV risk behavior?

• Does school enrollment reduce substance use in OVC (thereby potentially reducing HIV risk behavior)?

* Believed to be mainly marijuana in this population

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Policy Brief: Evidence for improving psychosocial outcomes for children affected by HIV/AIDS

Why is this issue important?

•HIV/AIDS places children at risk for poor social, emotional and mental health outcomes.

• There is a great deal of funding dedicated to addressing this issue, but very little evidence about what works to improve psychosocial outcomes for these children.

• In 2009, a systematic review could not identify any study that had adequately evaluated an intervention to improve psychosocial well-being for AIDS-affected children.

• This lack of evidence means that we don’t know how programmes or interventions work to improve child outcomes, if they are reaching the most vulnerable, or even if they are having unintended negative effect

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