With increasing access to ART, more and more children born with HIV are now surviving into adolescence and adulthood. As this was not expected a decade ago, society is not geared to deal with this unprecedented situation. This is the first generation of children living with HIV transitioning to adolescence and adulthood.

The needs of the adolescents and youth living with HIV vary from that of children as well as adults. The needs include access to HIV-prevention information, education and services, and increased access to treatment for those infected with HIV. They are in a phase where they require age-appropriate education empowering them to live a meaningful sexual life, develop essential skills and protect them from exploitation. In this newly evolving scenario, the experiences and insights of people working with ALHIV are few and far between. Moreover, even structured interventions for this group are limited in number and reach. ALHIV working with some of these organizations are able to articulate their issues. Active participation of these adolescents through experience sharing and discussions can help set criteria to evaluate adolescent-friendliness of community systems and structures. This can help evolve linkages of HIV infected and affected adolescents with specific government schemes.

As a step forward, the Forum for Child Protection and HIV organized a State-level Consultation, which focused on the issues and needs of adolescents and youth living/affected by HIV. The voices of the adolescents were actively heard. Their names have been changed in the report to protect their right to confidentiality.

The theme of the consultation was Positive Growing ...The Way Ahead.