A Generation at risk?: HIV/AIDS, vulnerable children and security in Southern Africa

HIV/AIDS is acknowledged as an increasingly significant humanitarian and development concern. It is also increasingly seen as a security issue, with implications for the well-being of individuals, households, communities and states. Faced with the prospect of growing numbers of AIDS orphans, some analysts have speculated that large numbers or orphans could themselves represent a security challenge. It has been argued that by reducing the resources available to children and destabilizing the institutions on which they depend-such as the family, school and community-HIV/AIDS may severely affect children's development. This may not only result in increased child mortality, morbidity and school drop out, but also increased victimisation and exploitation or children. By reducing the financial and emotional resources available to children, causing trauma and alienation and effectively limiting the realistic aspirations of the youngsters affected, it is also feared that the epidemic may create generations of disenfranchised and potentially dysfunctional young people who lack the socialisation necessary for constructive social engagement. Growing numbers of marginalized children may in turn impact ont stability and security in at least two ways; They may become both the victims and perpetrators of crime; and may provide a ready recruitment pool for individuals and organisations wishing to challenge the existing status quo. Lost of these arguments are, however, based on a particular vision of what orphanhood generally entails. The picture painted conjures up images of hordes of traumatised, unwanted children being cast to the very fringes of society; suffering wanton neglect and abuse and, ultimately, being left to fend for themselves in a work where life is often 'short, harsh and cheap'. This vision itself is based on a number of assumptions, including that: . the HIV/AIDS epidemic will result in large numbers of children being left in vulnerable circumstances;