1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910162715703321

Autore

Cheney Kristen E.

Titolo

Crying for Our Elders : African Orphanhood in the Age of HIV and AIDS / / Kristen E. Cheney

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago : , : University of Chicago Press, , [2017]

©2017

ISBN

0-226-43768-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (250 pages) : illustrations

Classificazione

LC 56547

Disciplina

305.23086/945

Soggetti

Orphans - Uganda - Social conditions

Children of AIDS patients - Uganda - Social conditions

Poor children - Uganda - Social conditions

Child welfare - Uganda

AIDS (Disease) - Social aspects - Uganda

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Previously issued in print: 2017.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Part One. Generations of HIV/AIDS, Orphanhood, and Intervention -- Part Two. Beyond Checking the "Voice" Box: Children's Rights and Participation in Development and Research -- Part Three. Orphanhood in the Age of HIV and AIDS -- Part Four. Blood Binds: The Transformation of Kinship and the Politics of Adoption -- Part Five. Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix: Children and Household Profiles by Youth Research Assistant Focus Group, 2007-2009 -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa has defined the childhoods of an entire generation. Over the past twenty years, international NGOs and charities have devoted immense attention to the millions of African children orphaned by the disease. But in Crying for Our Elders, anthropologist Kristen E. Cheney argues that these humanitarian groups have misread the 'orphan crisis'. She explains how the global humanitarian focus on orphanhood often elides the social and political circumstances that actually present the greatest adversity to vulnerable children-in effect deepening the crisis and thereby affecting children's



lives as irrevocably as HIV/AIDS itself.   Through ethnographic fieldwork and collaborative research with children in Uganda, Cheney traces how the "best interest" principle that governs children's' rights can stigmatize orphans and leave children in the post-antiretroviral era even more vulnerable to exploitation. She details the dramatic effects this has on traditional family support and child protection and stresses child empowerment over pity. Crying for Our Elders advances current discussions on humanitarianism, children's studies, orphanhood, and kinship. By exploring the unique experience of AIDS orphanhood through the eyes of children, caregivers, and policymakers, Cheney shows that despite the extreme challenges of growing up in the era of HIV/AIDS, the post-ARV generation still holds out hope for the future.