Missing face of AIDS: Children

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

We thought you would like to be among the first to know about a very

important global campaign being launched by UNICEF. Unite for Children.

Unite against AIDS will catapult the issue of children and AIDS into the public

eye and onto the public agenda globally. The issue is critical: AIDS is

destroying the lives of millions of children.

Below is the official press release which will be sent to media

professionals around the world. Their role is to help announce the

campaign. Your role, if youâ are willing to take up the challenge, is to make it

a success!

A live webcast of the Campaign launch, at UN Headquarters in New York, will be

available at http://www.unicef.org from 10 – 11 a.m. Eastern Time, 25 October

2005.

Please take the time to visit the site and to share this initiative with your

family, friends and colleagues.

Thank you in advance for your time and help.

Sincerely,

Augustine

E-mail: <aveliath@...>

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Children: The Missing Face of AIDS

UNICEF and UNAIDS Launch Global Campaign to Invigorate Action for the Millions

of Children Affected by HIV/AIDS

NEW YORK, 25 October 2005 – UNICEF, UNAIDS and other partners today

launched a global campaign focusing on the enormous impact of HIV/AIDS on

children, saying it was a disgrace that fewer than 5 per cent of HIV-positive

children receive treatment and that millions of children who have lost parents

to the disease go without support.

UNICEF said that children affected by the disease are the “missing face†of

AIDS – missing not only from global and national policy discussions on

HIV/AIDS, but also lacking access to even the most basic care and prevention

services. Millions of children are missing parents, siblings, schooling, health

care, basic protection and many of the other fundamentals of childhood because

of the toll the disease is taking, the two UN institutions said.

Launching the global campaign – Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS at the

United Nations with Secretary-General Kofi n, UNICEF Executive Director Ann

M. Veneman and UNAIDS Executive Director Piot noted that every minute:

A child dies of an AIDS-related illness

A child becomes infected with HIV

Four young people aged 15-24 become infected with HIV

In addition, an estimated 15 million children have lost at least one parent

because of AIDS. Yet less than 10 percent of children orphaned and made

vulnerable by AIDS receive public support or services. In sub-Saharan Africa,

where the impact is greatest, coping systems are stretched to the limit.

Nearly 25 years into the pandemic, help is reaching less than 10 percent of the

children affected by HIV/AIDS, leaving too many children to grow up alone, grow

up too fast or not grow up at all, Secretary-General n said. Simply put,

AIDS is wreaking havoc on childhood.

Veneman said that in some of the hardest-hit countries, particularly in

sub-Saharan Africa, the AIDS pandemic is “unravelling years of progress for

children. She noted that concrete measures to address the impact of AIDS on

children would be essential to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

In the past quarter-century, HIV/AIDS has claimed the lives of more than 20

million people and lowered average life expectancy in the hardest-hit countries

by as much as 30 years, Veneman said. A whole generation has never known a world

free of HIV and AIDS, yet the magnitude of the problem dwarfs the scale of the

response so far.

The global campaign aims to achieve measurable progress for children based on

internationally agreed goals in four key result areas:

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission : The vast majority of the

half-million children under the age of 15 who die from AIDS-related

llnesses every year contract HIV through mother-to-child transmission.

The campaign aims by 2010 to provide 80 percent of women in need with

access to services to prevent transmission of HIV to their babies.

Currently less than 10 per cent of women have access to these services.

Pediatric treatment : Less than 5 per cent of HIV-positive children in need of

AIDS treatment are receiving it, and only 1 per cent of children born to

HIV-infected mothers have access to cotrimoxazole, a low-cost antibiotic that

can nearly halve child deaths from AIDS by fighting off deadly infections. The

campaign aims by 2010 to provide antiretroviral treatment and/or cotrimoxazole

to 80 percent of children in need.

Prevention : Adolescents and young people age 15-24 account for roughly half of

all new HIV infections, but the vast majority of young people have no access to

the information, skills and services needed to protect themselves from HIV. The

campaign aims by 2010 to reduce the percentage of young people living with HIV

by 25 per cent, in line with agreed international goals.

Protection and support of children affected by AIDS : By 2010, it is

estimated that there will be 18 million children who have lost at least one

parent to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Well before parents die, children

especially girls have to take on adult tasks such as caring for the sick,

looking after younger siblings, generating income to pay for health costs, or

producing food. Often they must drop out of school.

The campaign aims by 2010 to reach 80 per cent of children most in need of

public support and services.

UNICEF said that children must be at the forefront of the fight against AIDS.

According to UNAIDS, $55 billion will be needed over the next three years, $22

billion in 2008 alone, to confront the AIDS pandemic. There is currently a

funding gap of at least $18 billion from 2005-2007. Not only does AIDS funding

need to increase dramatically, but a significant portion should be specifically

targeted for children affected by the disease.

The two organizations welcomed the commitment of a number of governments to

prioritize children affected by HIV/AIDS by allocating funding to children.

AIDS continues to tear apart families and communities, leaving behind 15 million

orphans and robbing countries of their future,†said UNAIDS Executive Director

Piot. “If countries are to develop, we must put children first. Children

must therefore be a major priority when it comes to the way we allocate and use

resources.

National leaders participating in events to launch the campaign around the world

include the Presidents of India, El Salvador, Brazil, Mozambique and Djibouti;

the Prime Ministers of the Netherlands, Ireland and Trinidad and Tobago; and the

Foreign Minister of Australia.