May 2003

Succession Planning in Uganda:
Early Outreach for AIDS-affected
Children and Their Families

Boy in Tororo with the aunt who takes care of him. The aunt's own children are in the background. Photo credit: Laelia Gilborn, Horizons/Population Council

Uganda has been widely recognized for lowering HIV incidence (Asiimwe-Okiror et al. 1997; Hogle 2002). However, because so many adults were previously infected and given the long period between HIV infection and death from AIDS, the number of orphaned children is still rising. By the end of 2001, there were 880,000 children under the age of 15 living in Uganda who had lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS 2002). But these orphans represent only the tip of the iceberg, since there are many more vulnerable children whose parents are alive but living with HIV infection. Evidence suggests that the negative impacts of HIV/AIDS affect children long before parents die, beginning when a parent’s health starts to decline (Gilborn et al. 2001). Yet few programs exist to help families before a parent’s death, and there is little research on the effectiveness of existing programs for AIDS-affected children.

• Study Methods
• Key Findings
• Conclusions
• Sources
• PDF format of summary (115 KB)

The principal investigators of this study were Rebecca Nyonyintono of the Department of Sociology at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and Laelia Gilborn of Horizons/Population Council. Also of Makerere University, Gabriel Jagwe-Wadda and Robert Kabumbuli oversaw the field work as research coordinators, and Fred Bateganya and Stephen Boogere conducted the qualitative components of the research.

The researchers would like to thank the following individuals for their help with the study: the counseling aides and staff of Plan/Uganda; Scott Geibel, Katie Schenk, and Roberto Valverde of Horizons/Population Council; Edward Kirumira of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Makerere University; the National Community of Women Living with AIDS (NACWOLA); Grasslands; and the Luwero Diocese of the Catholic church. We are also very grateful to all the men, women, and young people of Luwero and Tororo districts who agreed to participate in this research as respondents.

For further information, please contact Rebecca Nyonyintono at socdev@infocom.co.ug.

About Horizons

Horizons conducts global operations research to improve prevention, care, and support program. Horizons is implemented by the Population Council under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development. Horizons is implemented by the Population Council in partnership with the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Tulane University, Family Health International (FHI), and Johns Hopkins University.

Copyright © 2003, The Population Council

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This page updated
19 October 2007