HIV/AIDS POLICY

Introduction
The number of Aids victims is growing day by day and today there is an estimated number of about 40
millions living with HIV/AIDS. In South-East Asia, Cambodia has the highest prevalence of
HIV/AIDS affected victims. This situation is alarmingly increasing every year. The national response
is necessarily limited by the destruction of the health system under the Pol Pot regime and is underfunded since that time. National and Local governments rely heavily on NGOs to help with the
awareness building and access to treatments.
Work on HIV/AIDS is a key area of work for Caritas Network and in particular for Caritas Cambodia.
It is with a sense of urgency that Caritas Cambodia has included the response to AIDS victims as a
priority. The vision of Caritas Cambodia is to "Promote those works of charity and justice that
give careful attention to the impact of HIV and Aids especially on women and girls and mobilise
effective actions in response to these tragic consequences".
From this vision, Caritas Cambodia finds it impossible to tolerate a situation of global spread of HIV
in which:
Women living with HIV are blamed as being "vector of HIV" even when they have been
constantly faithful to their husbands and when the entry of the virus into the family circle has
come from their husband's infidelity.
Abject poverty too often compels women and children to submit themselves to human
trafficking, forced or commercial sex trade, sale of blood for day to day survival or in some
cases selling of children to the sex trade.
HIV pandemic has also arisen as a result of false or distorted notions about HIV prevention
measures and sexual abuse.
Caritas Cambodia and HIV Aids
Caritas Cambodia in its new strategic plan is developing a two pronged action in response to the HIV
AIDS problem:
1. Taking care of the affected victims of the pandemic by giving them a caring environment
wherein they can live in confidence and dignity.
2. Integrating awareness building and dissemination of information in all development programs
in order to make the community become conscious of the ill effects of the problem.
These activities are taken up as a special program and Caritas Cambodia will continue to consider this
issue as a priority and will motivate and mobilise the Caritas network and the local NGO network to
take up this issue as of prime importance. HIV/Aids awareness built into the different development
programmes will give the possibility to make the communities especially the VDA aware of the
situation of injustice in which the victims are subject to, and the responsibility of the community to
their less fortunate neighbours.

The present ongoing project experience has shown that it is the combination of formal education
awareness and the project presence in the neighbourhood, at the centres, in the prisons, in the hospitals
and doing home care that ultimately breaks down prejudice against and fear of people living with Aids.
It has become a key area of work for Caritas Cambodia.
HIV/AIDS Guiding principles
Caritas Cambodia strives to give a haven of hope where all people especially the poorest, the
marginalized and the oppressed find hope and are empowered to the fullness of their humanity as part
of a global community. This conviction motivates Caritas Cambodia to find it intolerable to accept the
spread of HIV in Cambodia, and the way affected people are neglected by the government and
stigmatized by the population.
In order to achieve this, Caritas Cambodia will:
1. Integrate information about the special vulnerability of women and girls to become HIV
infected and promote responsible behaviour on the part of men and boys in all its education
and formation programmes.
2. Advocate for and sponsor prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV by the use of
antiretroviral medications and (when medically indicated) extend long term antiretroviral
treatment services to women living with HIV even after they have given birth in order to
prolong the lives of both mother and child.
3. Ensure the active participation of women of every age in planning and implementing
programmes conducted by Caritas Cambodia.
4. Offer priority attention to women and girls in its HIV/AIDS programmes through care and
treatment services, with the understanding that local communities and programmes will
need to develop equitable policies for access to antiretroviral medications by all PLHA,
especially women and girls in need of such treatment
5. Strongly oppose any attempt to stigmatise, marginalize or discriminate against PLHA,
especially women and girls who are living with or otherwise infected by HIV.
6. Organize and arrange for confidential counselling and voluntary HIV testing services that
are sensitive to the particular needs of women and girls in this regard.
7. Integrate HIV/Aids victims as peer counsellors in the accompaniment process, but this needs
to be clearly stipulated and defined.
Caritas, in order to translate the above vision into action and in order to implement its guiding
principles, needs to build up on the present experience that it has gained through its ongoing
programme in Siem Reap, and will have to replicate it in other vulnerable and high risk areas.
In the same way, the occupational activities, given to the HIV/AIDS affected women, is also a means
to give them the possibility to lead a normal life in dignity and avoid social death through
stigmatisation and marginalisation. This programme has proven to be of great benefit for the victims.
At this juncture, Caritas Cambodia also reflected on the question of integration of HIV/AIDS affected
people as employees and added rules in its Human Resources policy regarding the hiring and HR
management in this case. (See HR policy).
October 15, 2006
Phnom Penh