This tudyall mpts t ex pl ain h w the li ving nd it i ns f ehil dr n In emen Mazegajarnand Ko lfe areas of ;ddi ; baba arc a ffe ted and h . they cope with the situ ation, In thernrroe ss, it tri t identify factors a G tin th e e pin f ; 11) affected children withrntheir inni t d probl em ', ocial ca pital and ava il ab le ca re ptions ar among the factorsrnidentifi ed , urknowledge fth e chil dren, on id erin ' th ffect f III V/A ID as wellrnus the. trat i . and fa t rs (social apital, tradit ion of orph an ca re, ex ternal a ' ncyrnbased interventi on , etc.) used to e p with th eir situati on, enables us t und rstand th eirrnneed. and pri riti as well a pt nti al in di ,enous asp cts th at work for th ir well bein "rnThe findin 's f the fi Idwork, in whi ch diffe rent I' . ea rch m thods wer appli ed, revea lrnthat va ri us and interrelated pI' blems are inni et I up n ; II)S afG et cI children as thrnresult of I II V// 11) . , Il owever, ;11). affect I hildr n of different a e, en leI', orph anrn, statu s, res idence ettin s, h useh lei economic statu , and family social network tren lthrnenj oyed social capital unequall y, anel faced different probl m wi th different severity.rnThese children empl oyed different trate ,i es, but not in all case, to c pe with theirrnproblem , in wh ich c ml11unity re ource , individu al learnt experi ences, economicrnac ti viti es of the community, and thc chil dren's social capital were the bas is for thernva rious copin g strategies res pecti ve to the strategie empl oyed.rnThe oth er outcome of the tudy is th at the local traditi on of orphan care, particul arly therntrad iti on of fostering orphans prim arily within the ex tend ed family proved to be essenti alrnin ass isting ; IDS orphans with their various needs. Although the impacts of HIV/AIDSrnweakened the social ca pital of the communities under study both at the household andrncommunity level, AIDS orphans from households with stron g social capital operatingrnthrough their relati onships with ex tended kin, community members, and informal andrnformal community organi zations were able to receive care a well as pool resources.rnMoreover the inve tigation howed that external agency based interventions, althoughrntheir numerous limitat ions and diffi cultie were identifi ed, ere of a istance to AIDrnIIrnaffected children they selected. Til inter enti n agenele the resea rcher identifiedrnutili zed the . oeial ca pital f th e ommunity ~ r they pr vid d community based supp rt,rnin whi ch i ID rphans in household with str nger social capital benefited more fromrnth e ervie provided. In eneral, the findin s fit with the con ptual framework uponrnwhich the resea rch is based.rnVIII