Parents of babies with HIV infection have declared discrimination against children
More than 55% of adoptive parents who raise children diagnosed with HIV infection, claim discrimination in Russia. They claim to face it almost everywhere - in clinics, in kindergartens and schools.
Such results of the survey were presented by the charity foundation CHILDREN +. The data came to the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, where they plan to pay special attention.
Children with HIV infection in the country live around 10 thousand people. Approximately 800 children with such a diagnosis, according to the Ministry of Health, are in orphanages and baby houses. About 23% of children are taken care of by their own relatives, the rest live in foster care.
Half of parents and guardians claim that a child with such a diagnosis is regularly discriminated against, and on the part of those who need to understand the essence of the problem - 46% of parents said that the doctors violate the child’s rights, and the rest paid attention to the fact that teachers and educators.
Among those who have never faced discrimination, mostly parents who hide the diagnosis of the child.
Most often, children are discriminated and violated their rights in health facilities, in second place are summer camps and sanatoriums, in the third place are sections and schools of art, followed by kindergartens and secondary schools.
Sometimes a child is denied a place with a kindergarten only on the basis of a diagnosis in the medical record, or they refuse to use new clean tools to inspect the baby in the clinic. Sanatoriums often refuse to accept a child with HIV, even if the ticket is purchased and paid for by their parents.
About 85% of parents and guardians said that they and their children lack of qualified psychological assistance and supportthey often feel isolated from society, outcasts.
Even among doctors and teachers, the level of awareness about HIV is extremely low, they often mistakenly believe that this is a contagious and contact disease, and therefore they refuse to accept a child in a dance group or sports section. Little is known about HIV and other parents who literally harass the child to leave the children's team, which has their own children.
Experts of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation intend to prepare set of measures to eliminate such discrimination. The recommendations made by them will be sent to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education of Russia, as well as to the Government of Russia.
