The risk of getting infected with hiv aids of street children in ho chi minh city problems and solutions

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - ENGLISH GRADUATION PAPER THE RISK OF GETTING INFECTED WITH HIV / AIDS OF

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - ENGLISH

GRADUATION PAPER

THE RISK OF GETTING INFECTED

WITH HIV / AIDS OF STREET CHILDREN IN HO CHI MINH CITY - PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

by PH~M NGUYEN QUYNH ANH

advised by NGUYEN THAI MQNG TUYEN, MA.

September, 2008

In addition, I would like to thank greatly my dean, Vu Quoc Anh, MA., for his instruction and support during the time doing this paper.

Especially, I would like to send my deep indebtedness and sincere thanks to Nguyen Thai Mong Tuyen, MA., my adviser, for her early and continuous whole- hearted assistance and corrections to complete this thesis.

Next, I wish to express my thanks to Vu Ngoc Son, MD., PhD., for with me sincere advice and valuable data concerning my field of study Without these materials,

my research would have been incomplete.

Moreover, I am pleased to thank Mr Tran Minh Tan working for the World Vision Organization for helping me contact the places that I did the questionnaire.

I am also equally grateful to my brother, Mr Chu Quoc Dung, who also works for the World Vision Organization, for his experience in working with street children and inspired me during the time I did this research.

Besides, my research would not have been so successful if I had not received the help from Thieu Nien 3 School, Thao Dan, Cay Mai Group, Tre Xanh Warm House, Cau Han Project and 70 respondents who participated in the questionnaire serving this study.

Finally, I would like to thank my friends for their encouragement and help to me

in carry out this research.

Ho Chi Minh City is the most crowded and developing city in Viet Nam However, besides its prosperity, there are some social problems needed to be solved, and one of them is street children They do not have enough conditions to develop with good care and education because of different reasons For instance, some children come from broken families, others try to support their family's income, or some others become street children because of peer pressure Thus, they are easy to be involved in social evils and epidemics, especially, street children in Vietnam in general and in Ho Chi Minh in particular are now facing HIV/AIDS Although the preventive, communicative, and treatable measures are being continued, the risk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS is still high A questionnaire was carried out with [10 children, who seemed to understand about HIV/AIDS but not deeply Therefore, the paper is done with the writer's hope of finding the knowledge of street children in Ho Chi Minh City about HIV/AIDS From that, giving the comments on present situations and recommending some suggested solutions to help them understand this epidemic more clearly and know how to protect themselves effectively

2.1.3 The risk of getting infected with HIV/ AIDS of street children 08

4.2 A brief review of personal information of street children 15

4.4 Some suggestions for helping street children learn about HIV/AIDS 32

Cha pter 5: CON CL U SI 0 N 34

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page

1 Figure 4.1 Gender of the street children 16

3 Figure 4.3 The ages of the street children 17

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ADVISER'S ASSESSMENTS

EXAMINER'S ASSESSMENTS

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Nowadays, Vietnam is more and more developed to integrate into theinternational market In addition, our country has become a member of WTO forone year, which creates more chances for us in the international arena However,some specialists of an American Bank of Investment predicted that the GDPgrowth has been about 7.3% and 7.8% in this year and the next year comparedwith 8.5% in the last year The inflation was up to 21.4% in April, 2008 (as only8.6% in August, 2007) 1 These figures reflect a crisis in the balance payment ofour country Actually, the life - standard is improved day by day, but the money

is devalued which makes the poor's lives difficult Moreover, there are still socialproblems such as homeless people, beggars, gambling, drug abuse, etc whichneed to be solved, and one of them is street children They are wandering on thestreets to earn their living, and social evils are very close to them As a number ofchildren infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS increases, so does the need tohave an in-depth understanding of the impact of HIV/AIDS on them For thisreason, the problem which I will deal with is the risk of getting infected withHIV /AIDS of street children in Ho Chi Minh City

Street children in Vietnam appeared at the end of 1980s At that time, it was said that they are "dust of life"; it means that they were wandering, sleeping and working on streets Most of them fell into bad situation after leaving their homes They had to live

in cities where they had a danger to be enticed to being prostitution using or selling drugs, and being baits of exploitation [oo.J This number of street children is increasing

in Vietnam (Acoleyen, 1999)?

I http://vtc.vnlkinhdoanhI180552/index.htm retrieved May 29, 2008.

2 Page 4, Graduation paper ofLe Thi Van, Course 8 (1999-2003) - Sociology department of Open University.

Children end up on streets for different reasons For instance, some of themescape from broken families or domestic quarrels For others, their parents'poverty leads them to supply family income in the street - living In addition, thebreakdown of traditional family values, education, sense of humanity andcommunity structure leave a large number of children without necessary care andsupport in their growth Street children are not mature enough to understand thesocial life, so they have become victims of social evils They are involved in drugabuse, illegal alcohol issues and sexual relations, etc These things often happen

in urban life, especially in big cities, Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Health (2006), there were8.500 HIV- infected children in Vietnam, most of them were street children.However, at present, this figure has not totaled up completely yet In Ho ChiMinh City, there are 10.000 children in danger of HIV/AIDS because of theirunsafe lives3. We can acknowledge that HIV/AIDS epidemic is attacking people,especially children in general and street children in particular

1.2 The urgency of doing this research

At present, the newest report of Ministry of Health shows that the total ofHIV- infected people who have died in our country is up to 39.180; and thenumber of HIV- infected people who are still alive is 127.442 cases Thisepidemic has spread national wide with an average infection ratio 28.6%; andQuang Ninh is the top rank with 54.5%; the second rank is Ho Chi Minh City47.6%; Hai Phong 46.25%; Can Tho 45%; Thai Nguyen 40.75%; and the last one

is Dien Bien 36.83%.4

3 http://vnexpress.net/VietnamfDoi-song/2006!07/3B9EC 165 retrieved January 9, 2008

4 http://hiv.com.vn/su-kien/tin-nong/0806433632.aspx retrieved June 9, 2008

Moreover, in Tuoi Ire vi tuoi tre page,

http://hanoi.vnn.vn/chuyende/hivaids/phongsu/bai03.htm (accessedDecember 19, 2007) an article entitled "HIV/AIDS epidemic attacking streetchildren" was posted Mentioning about street children, people are often worriedabout juvenile delinquencies, infected diseases from street - living, etc Now,HIV epidemic along with drugs and sexual harassment are the pressing problemsthat we need to overcome as soon as possible

From the two elements above, we can see that those figures give us an alarmabout HIV/AIDS problem and this epidemic concentrates in the overpopulatedcities Furthermore, this problem has made bad effects on many fields of sociallife and also on economic growth of our country in general and of Ho Chi MinhCity in particular Thus, I hope to have a part in helping street children'sawareness of HIV/AIDS, thence they know how to prevent themselves from thisepidemic

1.3 The aims of the study

There have been many studies and reports on the issue of street childrenwith different purposes and methods "Interactions of Old and New Causes in aGrowing Economy compared the differences between Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi"written by Duong Kim Hong (2005) is an example

Recently, there was a writing named "Formative Research on HIV/AIDSvulnerability among Street Youth in Ho Chi Minh City" conducted by theQuality of Life Promotion Centre (June, 2007) Basing on information I collectedand the present situations, an analysis of the risk of getting infected withHIV/AIDS of street children in Ho Chi Minh City will be done The purpose ofthis paper is also to find out the understanding of street children about HIV /AIDS

by a practical survey From the feedback getting from street children, somecomments and recommendations, as well as suggested solutions are given to helpstreet children understand about HIV/AIDS more clearly and know how toprotect themselves effectively.

1.4 The organization of the paper

This paper consists of five main parts The first part introduces the overview

of street children and the urgency of doing the research It then goes on to areview of the existing studies which the topic is concerned with and definitions

of the terms main of the topic, for example, street children, HIV/AIDS, etc Inshort, these things belong to the second part named literature review Next, that isthe methodology presenting the ways that I carry out the research After doing aquestionnaire, the fourth part, findings and discussion, is stated Finally, thesuggestions and conclusion are presented in the last part

1.5 Limitations of the research

Firstly, it was difficult to identifY the street children at the age of 13 to 18years old in the parks, so I couldn't do the survey because they were older oryounger than my subjects Besides, when I met some street children at Cay MaiGroup, all of them did the questionnaire However, some of them were older than

my subjects, so I had to eliminate their answers Next, the data collection wasundertaken in the summer, the street children in some centers didn't go to school,

so they went to work out all day, and it was not easy to meet them Moreover, thetime was restricted Therefore, the scope of my study was limited to 70respondents whereas the questionnaire was intended for 100 street children atfirst

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Street children with HIV/AIDS 2.1.1 Who are street children?

The term of street children or children wandering and earning on the streetbeing used by some Vietnam government officials are the same However,according to Wikipedia, "street children, street kids are homeless children wholive on the street - in particular, those that are not taken care of by parents orother adults Street children live in abandoned buildings, containers, automobiles,parks, or on the street itself'

The UNICEF definition and categorization said "street children are defined

as children under 18 years old who spend most of their time on the street" Thereare 3 types:

1 Street-living: Those who cut ties with their fainily and live alone on thestreets

2 Street-working: Those who spend all their time or most of their timeworking on streets to provide income for their families or for themselves Thesechildren have a home to return to and do not usually sleep on the streets

3 Street-family: Those who live with their families on the streets

In general, street children are not a homogeneous group Each child has adifferent family background, a different reason for being on the street, and somedifferent needs to be fulfilled After the categorization, we will clearlyunderstand the problems and the needs of each group

2.1.2 The overview ofHIV/AIDS

,

-People have been warned about HIV/ AIDS for over twenty years atpresent Although the preventive, communicative, and treatable measures arebeing continued, the risk of infected with HIV /AIDS is still high Therefore,HIV /AIDS is becoming one of the biggest problems facing the world today andnobody is beyond its reach In this section, we will find out the basic facts aboutHIV/AIDS

According to an international AIDS charity, Avert, athttp://www.avert.org/aids.htm retrieved June 13, 2008, HIV (HumanImmunodeficiency Virus) is a virus The virus infects the cells that make up thehuman body and replicates (makes a new copy of itself) within those cells Thisvirus can also damage human cells, which is one of the things that can make aperson ill

HIV can be passed from one person to another There are three main HIVtransmissions: having sexual relations with HIV- infected people; using sameinjection needles, receiving blood from infected people; being passed from aHIV- infected mother to her child during pregnancy, delivery and breast-feeding

On the other hand, there are several potential modes of HIV transmission tochildren, including mother - to - child transmission, sexual transmission amongadolescents, sexual abuse of children, transfusion of infected blood or bloodproducts, unsterile injection procedures, and scarification

AIDS (or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is the result of theinfection with the HIV virus, and also the result of other "opportunistic"

infections which invade the body as a result of its diminished capacity forresistance.

There is currently no cure for HIV/AIDS, although there are medicationswhich can prolong the period of a "normal" healthy life At present, antiretroviraltherapy (ART) for HIV- infected people is considered as one of the most positivemeasures, and the goals of treatment with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs are to:

• Prolong the survival of HIV- infected patients

• Promote optimal growth and development

• Reduce opportunistic infections

• Prevent disease progression

According to Associate professor - PhD Nguyen Duc Hien, Director of theNational Institute for Clinical Research & Tropical Medicine, reported that HIV-infected children are primary subjects in treatment with ARV, which helpsreduce the morbidity of children and improve their quality of life with its effects:suppress HIV replication and preserve, enhance, or reconstitute the immunesystem Nevertheless, the treatment of HIV-infected children with ARV drugsdepends on available local resources and infrastructure

ARV drugs are expensive; and their use requires knowledgeable healthcareworkers because it is a rapidly changing field, and it has benefits to child health

On the other hand, ART does have limitations, for example, patients on ARTmay develop adverse drug actions; drug interaction and drug resistance maydecrease the potency of ARV drugs, etc; so HIV- infected people need to betested before using this medicine at the right time

2.1.3 The risk of getting infected with HIV /AIDS of street children

There are many problems which make street

children easy to get infected with HIV/AIDS For

example, they are lacking of understanding about

HIV/AIDS, living in an unsafe environment or earning

their money, etc

Today, there are many supported social

foundations and non-governmental organizations that

are raising disadvantaged children However, there are still many children on thestreets who are like lonely birds in a human tide They are homeless people, sostreet- living is familiar to them They don't know the traps of life are rightbeside them In daily activities, street children contact many kinds of people, badand good Yet, I want to talk about the bad people They take advantage ofchildren's naivety for their "purposes" For example, they give street children an

children are familiar with their work,and they try using drugs in someday.Moreover, some children often use thesame injection needles when they takedrugs From that, it is easy for them toget infected with HIV/AIDS

Some children are enticed to be a streetwalker with foreigners or localpeople, after that they have unsafe sex Sometimes, the children request theirpartners using condoms, but they don't agree because they don't feel pleasurewhile wearing them, especially foreigners Thus, the children dare not to refusebecause they are in need of money On the other hand, some children think thatthey don't need preventive measures when they have sexual relations with their

girlfriends or boyfriends.5 Other children think that HIV/AIDS IS a disease ofadults, and it easy to cure.

In short, the knowledge about HIV/AIDS of street children is restricted.Therefore, street children are in danger of getting infected with HIV /AIDSepidemic anytime and anywhere What can we do for them?

2.2 Some materials related to the issue

"Street children" is one of the most pressing social problems in Vietnam ingeneral and in Ho Chi Minh City in particular In addition, HIV/AIDS epidemic

is attacking men, especially children, a young generation for the development of

a country In this research, I hope to reveal a problem, street children facing withHIV /AIDS in Ho Chi Minh City

In the past years, there have been some studies and articles on street

children in Vietnam The first one is Interactions of Old and New Causes in a Growing Economy compared the differences between Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi

written by Duong Kim Hong and Kenichi Ohno (July, 2005)

People sometimes call them roaming kids or "dust of life." However, the dynamic mechanism that prompts these children to drop out of school and go selling in the street

is yet to be analyzed deeply or comprehensively Such causes as dire poverty and parents' divorce may be common to the street children problem in all developing countries, but other causes may be unique to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, the two cities experiencing an enormous social and economic transformation.

This research gave three causes of street children such as broken family, mindsetproblem and economic migration In addition, the situation in their writing wasdivided into present protection and future investment They showed that all streetchildren were not a homogeneous group, so the authorities should haveappropriate solutions for the needs of each group

5 http://vnexpress.netiVietnam/Doi-soneJ2006/07/3B9EC165/ retrieved January 9, 2008

The second writing is that Jan W de Lind van Wijngaarden, UNICEFconsultant, (April 22, 2006) with Literature Review: Exploring factors and processes leading to HIV risk among the most vulnerable children and adolescents in Vietnam.

Both Bond and Forsyth note that the vulnerability of some categories of street children

to HIV/AIDS have increased in recent years; this is mainly due to their growing habit of drug abuse, but also because a perceived growth in the number of street children involved in sex work It is well known that street children have a higher risk to be sexually or otherwise exploited; being dependent on drugs increases the chance of sexual exploitation, since sex work is one of the few ways for children to make money Tim Bond found surprisingly little sex work among the street children he studied in Ho Chi Minh City; most of them made a living by begging, scavenging and petty theft.

Besides, this writing stated gaps in our knowledge about HIV vulnerabilityamong children and adolescents, and it was also concerning with ongoing andplanned research on HIV vulnerability among children and adolescents inVietnam

Next, Odu 00, Asekun-Olarinmoye EO, Bamidele JO, et al Eur JContracept Reprod Health Care 2008; 13(1):90-6, Knowledge, attitudes to HIV/AIDS and sexual behavior of students in a tertiary institution in south- western Nigeria, the authors carried out a descriptive cross-sectional surveybetween January and March 2005 They got information from 368 students inEde, Osun State, Nigeria Participants were selected by a multi-stage samplingmethod and data obtained using a semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire

Most (89.4%) respondents were aware of the existence of HIV/AIDS, and knew the etiology, routes of transmission, signs and symptoms, and preventive measures against the disease While a little over half (59.8%) of the respondents revealed that they could hug people with HIV/AIDS, one out of four (27.2%) stated that these persons should be isolated from the community Less than a quarter (22.3%) of the respondents believed that they were vulnerable to HIV/AIDS The study revealed a gap in the knowledge of HIV/AIDS and an inappropriate sexual behavior among respondents.

Formative Research on HIV/AIDS vulnerability among Street Youth in Ho Chi Minh City was conducted by the Quality of Life Promotion Centre (June,

2007) The aim of this research was to identitY possible risks and protectivefactors of HIV/AIDS prevention among four different sub-groups of streetchildren and youth (SCY) from 15 to 24 years in order to developrecommendations for appropriate and effective responses They said that SCY'sknowledge ofHIV/AIDS was limited and often misinformed Aside from namingthe three main transmission routes of HIV, SCY were not aware of other possibleroutes of HIV transmission as well as prevention methods The few respondentswho had received HIV communication were more accurate In this study, theyfound out various risk factors and gaps in SCY knowledge and attitudes towardsHIV/AIDS prevention

Moreover, according to Cong An Nhan Dan Newspaper (Monday, March

19,2007) having an article called "Street children in danger ofHIV/AIDS" withthe header in bold: "A shoe polishing boy told about his itinerary on streetsspontaneously He told the times begging, polishing shoe, selling candies, etc even sometimes elder brothers entangled him in "injection", and "confide" inelder women." Children, at the age of them, only know to study and eat instead

of striving to make their living They are so young in society, but they have toearn their living With immature understanding, they think that the big cities arethe places where they can earn money; they don't know that many risks arealways beside them

In summary, each research has a different way to analyze the street childrenand their risks in the daily life One thing needs to be emphasized that theknowledge about HIV /AIDS of a young generation in general and street children

in particular has not been widely communicated With these reference materialsand others from the Internet, as well as doing the questionnaire, the paper "Therisk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS of street children in Ho Chi Minh City -Problems and Solutions" is hope to be finished successfully

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Subjects

The subjects of my research were 13 to 18 year- old street childrenwandering on streets or living at warm houses, and street children centers.According to EriksonlUNICEF, at the age of 13 - 18, the children are inadolescence Their physical bodies develop quickly, and they get interest in same

or different sex They know who they are obviously, but they are so sensitivehow people recognize them At this time, friends play an important role than theirparents Moreover, some of the parents feel difficult in raising their childrenbecause they want to be independent Especially, the juveniles get rebellious atthis time when they experience pains, difficulties, shames, and so on in theirchildhood On the other hand, the adolescents feel mature and confident if theyget love and care from people At the adolescence, they often built Iife-orientation through the direction of adults Therefore, street children at this agewere chosen as subjects in my study

Furthermore, the number of street children taking part in this research was 70children who represent for street children in Ho Chi Minh City Places gatheringstreet children were located throughout Ho Chi Minh City, but I went to five ofthem

3.2 Materials

There was one questionnaire carried out to serve the research Thequestionnaire consisting of 10 multiple - choice questions were done to find outthe understanding of street children about HIV/AIDS They are two questionsabout what HIV is and what AIDS is; the modes of HIV transmission and non-transmission; the attitude of street children towards HIV - infected people; one

two situations asking about the street children's attitude towards drug and sexualrelations The last question gave some ways for street children to learn aboutHIV/AIDS and avoiding the disease effectively Especially, the questionnairewas written in Vietnamese in the survey; then it was translated into English andattached to this paper

Besides, the information relating to this problem was collected from articles

on the Internet and printed writings which helped to understand real situationsdeeply in comparison with the results from the questionnaire

3.3 Procedures

First of all, the questionnaire was designed and delivered to the streetchildren of the Ii~places: Thieu Nien 3 School (Go Yap district), Thao Dan(district 3), Tre Xanh Warm House (district 1), Cay Mai Group (Cho Lon, district5), and Cau Han Project (district 7) In general, street children in centers are nowmany younger than older ones (under 13 years old); and street children in theparks are difficult to gather if we have no help from street educators Most ofstreet children could do the questionnaire by themselves; some of them wereinterviewed because they were illiterate After the questionnaire sheets werefilled, they were returned to the researcher

Secondly, basing on the results from the questionnaire, a speci fie analysis ofthe number of street children understanding and misunderstanding aboutHIV/AIDS was carried out From that, some comments on the real situation ofstreet children towards HIV/AIDS problem were given In addition, somesolutions to how to help street children learn about and avoid it effectively weresuggested It is the writer's wish to contribute to fill in the gaps in the knowledgeofHIV/AIDS among street children, and to help them be confident in their lives

3.4 Statistical treatment

To find out the knowledge of street children about HlV/AIDS, a data processing was done based on the answers to the questionnaire A data capturefrom the questionnaire was transcribed and coded in Excel by the researcher.Moreover, these figures were illustrated by charts for readers to understandeasily The data was valuable if the results of the questionnaire were reliable andhonest From that point, the statistics reflected how street children understoodHlV /AIDS epidemic

-Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter aims to give the results received from the questionnaire, andthen an analysis of these results is presented to reach a conclusion of thisresearch

4.1 Overview

A questionnaire was delivered to the subjects in five places, and at the timerequired, there were 70 completed questionnaires returned They were 30 sheetsfrom Thieu Nien 3 School, 8 sheets from Thao Dan; Tre Xanh Warm House with

6 sheets, Cay Mai Group with 12 sheets, and 14 ones from Cau Han Project

In the first part of the questionnaire, the questionnaire were asked abouttheir personal information such as age, gender, education, place to live, familystatus, and native place However, there were 10 answers from those at the olderages than my subjects, so their answers were not counted

In the second part, there were 10 multiple- choice questions which tried tofind out the understanding ofHIV/AIDS of street children

4.2 A brief review of personal information of street children

First of all, among 70 respondents, there were 44 males (66%), 26 females(34%), and 0 undefined (0%) which showed that street boys were more thanstreet girls These figures were illustrated by a pie chart below (Figure 4.1)

Table 4.2 Age of the street children

Next, the results in table 4.2 told us that the ages of the subjects were from

13 to 18 years old It can be concluded, that there was not much difference inages of street children in this survey (Figure 4.3)

One more thing is a brief review of education of the subjects There were 11

children who were studying in the second grades at the age of 13, 14, 15, and 17;and it meant that they did not have chances and conditions to go to school inaccordance with their ages Moreover, 42 children were studying from the fifth tothe eleventh grades, and they made up two thirds of the total Besides, thenumber of street children finished school only was 7 people whereas there werestill 10 children who didn't go to school Overall, most of children had anopportunity to be educated, although some children did have no conditions to go

to school

Figure 4.3 The ages of the street children

Finally, the family status, a basic foundation, was so important to children,but there were still some problems

As seen from the chart above (Figure 4.4), the street children almost knewtheir fathers and mothers The figure 86% was the number of children' mothersand 73% of children' fathers who were still alive Nevertheless, a number offathers died that accounted for 20%, but these were less than 12% of children'mothers who died However, unknown fathers and mothers of street childrentook just 16% each of the totals In addition, street children had greater than threesiblings made up to 54% while 16% of them were an only child in their families.The rest had one or two siblings made up 11% and 19% In summary, mostchildren had a family background, but they have been labeled "street children"since they went out of their family or their family earned their living on streets.Some children actually have lived far from their family from one to seven years,and a few children did not remember how long they lived far away their homes.Especially, there were one thirds of the children who were living with theirfamilies One more thing, there were 19 children who had a native place in HoChi Minh City; 4 children didn't know where they came from; and the rest ofthem were from other regions such as Ha Noi, Phu Yen, Dong Nai, Hue, andVinh Long, etc Overall, their lives were so difficult because they were poor andthey were immigrants.

In short, the personal information or socio - demographics characteristics in

an academic way reflects their background; from that, we can understand andknow how to communicate with them

4.3 Results of the questionnaire

4.3.1 Questions 1, 2 and 3

According to the survey, although all street children have heard aboutHIV/AIDS, they understood about this problem in different ways Question 2 andquestion 3 aimed to find out the definitions of HIV and AIDS Firstly, in thequestion 2, 56% of children answered that HIV was a century disease, this figuremade up more than one half of the total An option was considered as thedefinition of HIV which was a virus that caused AIDS accounted for 39% Onemore option was that HIV was a disease of adults, and it was followed with 6%.These figures were displayed in the chart below (Figure 4.5)

A virus that causes A disease of adults A century disease

AIDS

Figure 4.5 Results of question 2

Secondly, the figure 4.6 gives information on question 2, "What is AIDS?"

An option which AIDS was the last period of HIV infection was chosen at thehighest percentage (63%) Besides, 30% of the children assumed that AIDScaused death Moreover, there were 7% of other ideas: AIDS was a syndrome of

declining immunity to people; and AIDS could bring about a gonorrhea, syphilis,and female disease.

AIDS is the lastperiod ofHIVinfection

AIDS causesdeath

Other ideas

Figure 4.6 Results of question 3

Finally, street children have been learnt about HIV and AIDS, but most ofthem did not understand HIV exactly, while they thought that HIV was a centurydisease Actually, in this situation, we do not mention whether the answers wereright or wrong, we just focus on children' thinking about the problem Besides,AIDS was understood more clearly than HIV However, AIDS is not a diseaseand no one dies of AIDS People die of a disease such as tuberculosis orbronchitis from their damaged immune system as a result of HI V infection