World Children’s Day, marked each year on 20 November, is a global moment to reassert the rights of every child: to safety, health, education, and opportunity. This year’s UNICEF theme, “My Day, My Rights,” calls on the world to listen to children’s voices and uphold the promises made to them under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Yet for an estimated 1.4 million children living with HIV worldwide (nearly 90% living in Africa), and the millions more affected, these rights remain fragile and too often overlooked.
To mark the day, we spoke with three young mothers living with HIV in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria; women raising children both living with and without HIV, navigating treatment access, disclosure, stigma, and the daily work of protecting their children’s rights.
Their lived experience reveals how far we still have to go, but also the resilience and hope driving them forward. They’re building futures where all children, regardless of HIV status, can thrive with dignity and opportunity.
1. A right to be born free from HIV
“My first time ever going to the antenatal clinic was when I was seven months pregnant. That’s when I found out I had HIV. The second time I went to the clinic was when I went to deliver my child. Then I was told she had also acquired HIV.” Lydia, Kenya.
Lydia’s experience reveals a system that failed her at every turn. She wasn’t linked to antenatal care in her first or second trimester, the critical window when HIV testing, treatment initiation, and viral suppression can prevent vertical transmission. And when her daughter was born, the system that had already failed Lydia failed her child too.
Lydia fell through gaps that still exist in maternal and child health systems worldwide, gaps created by poverty, distance from clinics, lack of community outreach, stigma, and health systems that are under-resourced and overstretched. These gaps led to an estimated 120,000 children acquiring HIV in 2024.
The contrast with other mothers’ experiences shows what’s possible when support systems work.
For Oluchi in Nigeria, it was a combination of clinical care and community that carried her through. “I’ve always had that support, especially from the women in the community who understand what it feels like because they’ve been there. I’m a member of the Association of Positive Women Living with HIV in Nigeria. Navigating my pregnancy was easy for me because of that support.”
For Bianca in Zimbabwe, participation in GNP+’s Mama and Papa Bear peer support program, which builds and supports parent and caregiver advocates, was crucial. “I had people walking alongside me who had been through it before. The program helped me understand what steps to take to protect my baby,” she says.
Lydia, Bianca, and Oluchi live in different countries, but their stories reveal a universal truth: outcomes depend not on individual mothers’ efforts alone, but on whether health systems and communities show up to support them. Every child has the right to be born free from HIV. Every pregnant woman, regardless of where she lives, her economic status, or when she learns her HIV status, deserves comprehensive care.
2.A right to safe feeding and informed choice
“I was breastfeeding him with milk only and trying not to give him solids. But it was a challenge because relatives would want to feed him yogurt and other things. One time, I caught my in-laws feeding the baby yogurt. They said he was crying because he was hungry. I was so scared my child would be infected with HIV.” Bianca, Zimbabwe
For Bianca, trying to exclusively breastfeed her son for the recommended six months became a daily challenge against the expectations of those around her.
Her fear was justified. Mixing breastfeeding with other foods can increase the risk of HIV transmission. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, combined with maternal antiretroviral therapy, significantly reduces this risk. But navigating this guidance within family structures that do not know your status can feel impossible.
The financial barrier also added another layer. “Here in Zimbabwe, formula milk is expensive. Personally, if resources were available, I would have chosen formula to make sure my baby was safe from HIV. But it is not affordable. Clinics do not offer alternatives. Everyone is told, ‘You should breastfeed.’ It is presented as the only option.”
For Lydia, the situation was reversed, she wanted to breastfeed, but couldn’t. “The first few months after her birth, I didn’t even have milk. We could not afford formula, so we gave her cow’s milk and some solids.” Her experience reflects a reality many mothers face: guidance without practical support can leave them with no safe option at all.
WHO’s 2025 updated guidelines on infant feeding and prophylaxis emphasize that mothers with HIV should be supported in their infant feeding choice. When replacement feeding is appropriate and mothers have suppressed viral loads, breastfeeding should remain an option with strong clinic or community-based support. For infants, WHO recommends HIV prophylaxis: six weeks of single-drug prophylaxis for lower-risk infants, and a triple-drug regimen for those at higher risk, with continuation of single-drug prophylaxis if breastfeeding continues beyond six weeks.
But guidelines alone cannot address structural barriers. Mothers living with HIV deserve real, feasible choices, not instructions that ignore economic hardship or cultural norms. They need access to affordable, safe infant feeding options, whether that means support for exclusive breastfeeding with treatment adherence or subsidized formula when breastfeeding is not possible. They need health systems that respect their autonomy and counseling that acknowledges their lived realities.
3. A right to the latest treatment innovations
For Lydia, this is not just a principle. It is about her ten-year-old daughter’s daily reality. Her child deserves access to the same innovations in HIV treatment that adults are already benefiting from. For too long, children have been an afterthought in drug development, left to wait years, sometimes decades, for treatments that could transform their lives.
Now, as long-acting HIV treatments are being rolled out for adults, Lydia is asking a simple question: why not for her daughter? “My daughter has the right to a long-acting HIV treatment,” Lydia says. “Let’s move children away from daily pills. She has the right to treatment that is once a month or every two months, not every single day. She deserves that choice, that ease, a childhood without pills every morning.”
The latest WHO technical report, The Future of Paediatric Clinical Trials: Setting Research Priorities for Child Health, lists critical questions about long-acting antiretrovirals for children among its top research priorities. For mothers like Lydia and the 1.4 million children living with HIV, these cannot remain questions. They need to become realities. Science and innovation exist. What is missing is urgency and the political will to prioritize children’s lives.
But for almost 630,000 other children living with HIV, daily treatment is out of reach, they do not even receive the lifesaving pills that could keep them healthy. According to UNAIDS, only 55% of children aged 0–14 receive lifesaving antiretroviral therapy. In 2024 alone, 75,000 children died of AIDS-related illnesses, even though they represent just 3% of all people living with HIV. This is unacceptable.
Beyond treatment initiation, we must urgently address the high risk of mortality after hospital discharge for children living with HIV. WHO recommends post-discharge care to close this gap and save lives. Interventions such as transitional care planning, follow-up calls, home visits, and individualized support are proven to reduce mortality. Implementing them is not optional—it is a moral imperative.No child should leave a hospital only to face death at home.Children have a right to life, a right to not die from AIDS.
4. A right to safe disclosure
“I’m hoping she’ll receive knowledge of my HIV status well when the time comes. My fear is how it will affect her as a person. I do not want her to look at me as someone who is probably going to die very soon and leave her alone,” Oluchi,Nigeria.
Even though Oluchi has started mentally preparing her six-year-old daughter, she is unsure how the full realization will hit her. “I’m letting her in little by little. I take her to my workplace, to my meetings. She knows almost everyone in the community. She helps me take my medicine every morning. She knows vaguely they are for HIV, but I don’t think she fully understands,” Oluchi explains.
Like Oluchi, Bianca in Zimbabwe faces the same challenge. Her own memory of disclosure is still vivid and painful. At 15, her grandmother disclosed Bianca’s HIV status in a way that was so traumatic it drove her to attempt suicide. “She told me, ‘Your late mother was a prostitute, and she caught a killer disease and passed it to you. You are now living with HIV. Go and find out about that disease you have.'”
Now, as a mother to a five-year-old HIV-negative son, Bianca must navigate a very different question: how will she tell him about her own status?
For Lydia, when her daughter asks why she takes medicine every day, she tells her it is for her chest. “My daughter has asthma, so it is easy to tell her that,” she says. But Lydia is still haunted by her own experience at 16, when a health worker disclosed her HIV status to her mother without her consent. Now, as a mother, she wants to walk this journey differently but does not know how.
“Even in the clinics, they tell us, ‘just disclose when the time is right.’ But when is the right time, and how do I do it? This is more than a parent’s issue alone.” Lydia adds.
The WHO guidelines recommend that children living with HIV of school age be told their status, with careful consideration of who does the disclosure to ensure it promotes the child’s wellbeing and preserves a strong, trusting relationship with their caregiver. Parents living with HIV are advised to share their own status gradually, in line with the child’s understanding and emotional readiness.But guidelines are not enough. Families need structured support, trained counselors, and peer networks to navigate these conversations safely. Disclosure should never be a moment of trauma; it should be a process of trust, care, and empowerment.
Children have the right to a disclosure that is supportive, dignified, and centered on their wellbeing. No child should learn about HIV—theirs or their parent’s—through stigma, fear, or isolation. Every child deserves truth delivered with care.
5. A right to a future full of possibilities
Before bed each night, Oluchi’s six-year-old daughter has a request: “Can we play Michael Jackson?” She dances around the house, her small body moving to the rhythm, her imagination soaring.
Oluchi’s biggest wish is simple: “That my daughter becomes as big as I could never be. That she would look at the world and the people around her with a grace that pulls people together. That people just smile remembering her, thinking about her, seeing the things she has done. That is always my biggest prayer for her.”
For Lydia’s daughter, the world comes alive through colors. She loves painting and drawing, downloading photos to recreate them on paper. “She is an excellent drawer,” Lydia says proudly. “We cook together, spend time reading books. She is curious, creative, and full of life.”
Bianca knows exactly what she wants for her 5 year old son: “I want him to have a birth certificate, which will help him academically. Because I grew up without a birth certificate and faced many challenges. I want him to have a stable, comfortable shelter. The right to decent food. But I also want him to have the right to access sexual and reproductive health information when the time comes. Comprehensive information about his body, about relationships, about protecting himself. I think it is every child’s right to know.”
These children are not defined by HIV. They are dancers, artists, dreamers who reach for the stars. Their futures should be boundless; free from fear and limits. They deserve to grow up knowing their rights, their worth, and the endless possibilities that lie ahead.
Every child has the right to dream. Every parent has the right to see those dreams come true.
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At GNP+, we believe every child deserves a fair start in life, free from stigma, empowered by rights, and supported by systems that put families first. This World Children’s Day, we stand with every mother and child living with or affected by HIV. Every day should be ‘their day, their right’.
GNP+ extends our appreciation to our partners who support our advocacy to ensure children living with HIV can access treatment and care. This includes collaboration through the Global Alliance to End AIDS in Children by 2030 and our partnership with Aidsfonds under the End Paediatric AIDS in Children (EPIC) programme.
