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Adolescent Health |
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 Gender-based violence. Forced and coerced sexual encounters are all too commonplace.1 The first sexual experience for 20-25 percent of young women in villages of Zambia, Kenya and South Africa was found to involve physical force or coercion.2
- The inability to avoid sex without protection, even in ongoing partnerships, is increasingly recognized as a primary factor in the rise in HIV infections among young women and girls.
- Violence and threats of violence prevent women from seeking information, counseling and testing, treatment and care.
- Throughout the world, lack of legal recourse and financial dependence leave women who are in abusive relationships with little power. Lacking economic self-sufficiency, women and girls are also often denied the protection of property and inheritance rights. Even where civil laws protect the rights of women, contrary customary or traditional law may prevail.3
- Economic destitution can lead unskilled women and girls to desperate acts, including transactional or commercial sex, greatly heightening the risk of contracting HIV.
- In developing countries, more than 80 million girls under age 18 will be married—some as young as age 10.4 In many cases, laws prohibit early marriage, but it is still prevalent in countries such as India, Nepal and Niger.5
- Girls under age 16 are most vulnerable to sexual assault—nearly half of sexual assaults target these adolescents.4
Orphans due to AIDS and vulnerable children. More than 15 million children under the age of 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS and about 80 percent of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa.6
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- These orphans and vulnerable children may live with other family members, such as grandparents, increasing the burden on those households.
- Older siblings may be tasked with providing care for their parents and for younger siblings, preventing them from completing school or learning vocational skills. These children have little preparation to enable them to escape poverty.
- In addition to losing their parents, many of these children have also lost teachers and other adults in the community who play a significant role in their lives.
- These vulnerable children are more likely to drop out of school and to engage in risky behaviors that increase their chances of becoming infected with HIV. They experience stigma, discrimination and poverty.
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Read more about the effects of HIV/AIDS on young people and orphans and vulnerable children.
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