Memory Book – Memory, grief and identity: Life stories from orphaned children

This book is the result of a memory project undertaken by Save the Children Sweden and Handicap National in a deprived area of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during December 2005. Eighteen children were involved in the project all of whom come from particularly poor urban backgrounds and have experienced the death of one or more parent, in nearly all cases from HIV/AIDS.
There are very important messages which come across from these moving narratives and they represent key challenges for all those working with children living in communities affected by HIV/AIDS. It very rarely happens that children are given a space to tell their stories and to be listened to. It almost never happens to children who live in poverty and come from precarious family backgrounds. These stories are all the more remarkable for being so rarely heard. It is essential that the messages they convey are acted upon by all those involved with working with children living in communities affected by HIV/AIDS.