THE WORD orphan in PNG can be an emotive term with even political leaders pronouncing there is no such thing in the country.

So, to progress the discussion, let’s remove this terminology by just calling them children whose lives have been impacted by HIV.

In the last few years the number of children whose parents have succumbed to the HIV virus has become noticeable. Anecdotally, this appears to be in the many thousands.

Left with no support, the children, in most but not all cases, are absorbed within the households of relatives or friends.

The last year, however, has been an eye opener for the Board of the Serendipity Educational Endowment Fund (SEEF), established by the Asia Pacific Business Coalition on AIDS to provide education for PNG children whose lives have been impacted by the AIDS epidemic.

As it carries out its mandate, SEEF has begun to comprehend the enormous number of young people whose lives have been affected by HIV and this has allowed us to take away the veneer that the extended family is the end of the story.

The common theme of so many of these children is that they are of secondary status. They are the last to be considered for anything, including education.

Young girls and women face the additional hardship of having to justify why they should be educated and this is compounded when household resources are scarce and families have to make unenviable choices.

But what should be of no surprise is the trauma faced by children whose lives have been turned upside down by HIV.

The impact on them is compounded but such considerations as whether they also have the virus that killed their parents and what faces them in an uncertain life. They worry about whether their adopted family will stick by them. And observe that they are not able to enjoy what other family members have.

And then there is the overriding, all pervasive stigma of discrimination. There is a powerful message that a person is different because their parents have HIV or died from AIDS.

The mix of community ignorance and fear is much harder to bear on the innocent shoulders of the young.

Over the next three months a trustee of SEEF, Elizabeth Reid, will provide NASFUND with some of the findings that are coming out of the educational endowment fund on how HIV is impacting on the lives of children.

With these greater insights, people may be able to more positively contribute to delivering better outcomes for this often ignored group whose lives have been greatly and irreversibly altered.

* From the NASFUND e-newsletter for May