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This guidance is designed for UNICEF field staff – including humanitarian field officers, coordinators, specialist and advisors – as well as UNICEF’s partners and others involved in humanitarian work. It provides practical tips and offers entry points for making sure that humanitarian action takes children with disabilities into account. There are 5 other associated guidelines. 

Chapters include: 

impact of emergiencies on health of children and adolescents with disabilities
why children and adolescents with disabilities are excluded health and HIV/AIDS interventions
frameworks and approaches
programmatic actions
preparedness
response and early recovery
recovery and reconstruction
practical tips

Purpose: By exploring the level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards persons with HIV/AIDS among deaf people in Ghana, this article aims to identify and correct possible gaps in awareness.

Method: A participatory sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs assessment was conducted, targetting deaf people who were fluent in the Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL). The study design was a two-phase, sequential, mixed methods approach. Three focus groups assisted in the development of a survey, which was then implemented for needs assessment data collection. The 179 study participants consisted of 26 focus group participants, 152 survey respondents and 1 key informant. Of the focus group participants, 7 were executives of Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD), 10 were adult males, and nine were adult females. Apart from the key informant, all the participants were deaf persons.

Results: The study indicated that many respondents still had misconceptions about HIV/AIDS and had difficulty identifying preventive methods, but their attitudes towards persons with HIV/AIDS was generally positive.

Conclusion: More attention needs to be paid to the requirements of the deaf community and to designing HIV/AIDS programmes and services that are deaf-friendly and accessible.

This manual is intended to help network support agents and other community workers be more effective in disseminating standardised information about HIV and AIDS. It "...emphasises the importance of the acquisition of knowledge, skills and the right attitude needed to identify the psychosocial needs of people of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and address these needs by giving information, counselling and appropriate referrals. Knowledge of counselling and psychosocial care, is combined as much as possible with prevention activities such as adopting HIV basic care positive prevention and adherence to treatment"

This book provides health care workers and mangers with information and practical guidance relating to antiretroviral therapies (ART). It also considers wider care and treatment issues such as; opportunistic infections, the integration of ART with antenatal and midwifery services, the particular needs of children and young people, support relating to nutrition, spiritual needs, psycho-social and economic issues. In addition, the need for community level support to help with adherence to treatment and address stigma and discrimination are also considered, as is end-of-life care for people whose disease does not respond to treatment

The impact of HIV on tribal populations has received little attention. Often living in remote areas, further isolated by language, tradition and endogamous marriage patters, members of such communities have been assumed to be at lower risk for HIV. However, there is growing awareness that tribal peoples are sometimes at considerable risk for HIV, as well as other sexually transmitted infections. Young people in such communities may be particularly vulnerable. Traditional practices may forbid discussion of sex at the same time as increasing exposure to outside influences bring new attitudes and expectations about sex and sexuality. Concerned about the implications of the HIV epidemic on tribal populations, a review was conducted of available data on the HIV epidemic within tribal groups. Based on findings from this review, we propose a largely unexplored avenue for reaching tribal populations: namely, the incorporation of the HIV and AIDS related messages into traditional coming of age ceremonies. Such an intervention however can be one component of a comprehensive approach to reaching these often hard-to-reach populations but it may be an especially effective way to reach young people within these communities.

With HIV prevalence rates of over 20% in many sub-Saharan African countries, and with infection rates rising rapidly in other parts of the world, NGOs are funding that HIV/AIDS is affecting not only programme work but also staff. If NGOs are to be credible in these communities, they need to be seen to be addressing HIV/AIDS internally in a way that is consistent with their external messages. However, developing a workable comprehensive solution that covers policy, education and prevention, and treatment and care is not easy. This guide looks at the key issues involved in developing a workplace strategy and how different NGOs and commercial organisations are approaching these issues through a series of case studies. It also provides a guide to the key components of a successful strategy and a list of useful reference documents