“If I was an HIV negative father, my worries on my own self or on my life and my medicines would have been less. It can happen with any disease, but the stigma attached with HIV deepens the impact and stresses you out. The worry for the future of your children increases multi-fold. It increases one’s responsibilities multi-fold too” Father living with HIV, India
In 2011, IPPF supported qualitative research in
nine countries to document the perspectives and experiences of young people
living with HIV accessing standalone or integrated sexual and reproductive
health (SRH) and HIV services. Young people living with HIV were interviewed in
each country including young men and women under the age of 30 some of whom
were men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers, transgender people and
migrant workers.
Further analysis has been done on the results of
the survey in Sudan, Mexico and India. Interesting gender differences can be
seen in the perceptions of parenthood among young people living with HIV, with
a greater concern that HIV status affected parenting choices more for men than
women. In all three countries, a majority of respondents felt that being
HIV-positive affected a man’s role as a father. The reasons given were that men
had a greater sense of responsibility towards their children as their primary
role was providing social and financial security and this was affected by being
HIV-positive (see figure 1).
The importance of male
involvement can be clearly seen in these findings. Young men and young women
living with HIV see the importance of male involvement when considering their
own parenting choices. This shows that attention, support and services need to
focus not only on the sexual and reproductive health and choices of young
women, but also on men and their dreams and desires of fatherhood.
Download the full issue of the IPPF HIV Update newsletter: http://www.ippf.org/resource/HIV-Update-Engaging-men-and-boys
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