‘Vulnerable to HIV’: lives of orphan adolescent girls

HIV and AIDS has become one of the developmental challenges affecting the lives of many including children and youth in Sub Saharan Africa. Many children grow up without both parents due to parental loss to AIDS. There is related concern that orphan adolescent girls are at heightened risk of becoming infected with HIV through sexual risk behaviours which can be facilitated by their socio economic conditions. Though there is a lot of recognition and focus on problems of HIV and AIDS, there is gap in understanding the lives and vulnerabilities of orphan adolescent girls about whom little is known and are invisible in related programs and policies. This research explores the lives of these girls living in adolescent headed households and are between the ages of 15 to 19. The paper tries to qualitatively investigate the life experiences of five adolescent girls to understand conditions of vulnerability and resilience , in relation to HIV and life chances, among orphan adolescent girls. Life history, key informant interviews and focus group discussion were the techniques used to collect the data. This paper argues that the conditions that facilitate vulnerability and resilience in relation to HIV among orphan adolescent girls in poverty context are mainly related to factors beyond the girl‟s sexual behaviour which goes in line with the study finding. It is evident from the study that though the orphan adolescent girls heading households are vulnerable to HIV and lacking attention by programs and policies, they do use copings strategies that contribute to their resilience. The paper recommends that it is important to actively involve the girls and understand their lives as well as context when designing related interventions.