Abstract
The global Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) challenge continues to negatively
affect children. They experience problems in accepting their diagnosis, adapting to
medications, and relating with their social environment, including family, peers, and
teachers. These challenges become more pronounced when the children living with
HIV attend school and try to fit in with their peers and the scope of academic demands.
Their parents/caregivers and siblings bear the burden of supporting the school-going
children living with HIV and contribute to ensuring their positive health and academic
outcomes.
In Eswatini, several programmes provide much-needed support to school-going
children at school but mainly focus on community action for orphaned and vulnerable
children. One programme follows HIV-infected adolescents, focusing on health clubs
that assist with treatment adherence. The Ministry of Education and Training also
implements a school-based integrated model for the care and support of orphaned
and vulnerable children. However, support that links the school with the child’s needs
and challenges is lacking. The home is the primary nurturing environment, and the
school is a secondary nurturing environment for the child, and these have to work
cooperatively to ensure the well-being of the school-going child living with HIV while
ensuring positive health and academic outcomes.
The purpose of the study was to develop strategies for therapeutic professionals to
facilitate a home-school continuum of support for primary school-going children
infected with HIV. The study followed a three-phase process where Phase 1 was a
qualitative phenomenological, exploratory, descriptive and contextual study to gain an
in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of school-going children living with
HIV, and the experiences of their parents/caregivers and siblings. Phase 2 was the
development of a conceptual framework guided by the survey list of Dickoff, James
and Wiedenbach. Phase 3 entailed the formulation of strategies to facilitate the homeschool
continuum of support for school-going children living with HIV.
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Three overlapping themes emerged from all participants, namely experiences of
worrying and struggling on their own; disclosure and a lack of trust; and the desire for
the children to fulfil their educational dreams. The original contribution of this study
includes the formulated strategies to facilitate a continuum of support for school-going
children living with HIV, which will be used by therapeutic professionals to facilitate the
implementation by teachers, parents/caregivers, and siblings to support the schoolgoing
child living with HIV. Measures of trustworthiness and ethical principles were
adhered to throughout the study.