Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS
By Sally Bolton, for the Chronicle
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| Jeanette Kagame, First Lady of the Rwandese Republic. Photo courtesy of UNICEF. |
Every 15 seconds, somewhere in the world, a child is infected with HIV and despite recent advances in treating the virus, millions of people, especially women, are still denied access to medication to stop what Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called "the most heart-wrenching form of transmission: mother to child". In addition to those directly infected, there are an estimated 15 million children worldwide who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS.
The new campaign of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), "Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS", hopes to focus global attention on the devastating impact that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has had on children all over the world. Ann Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director, launched the campaign at UN Headquarters in New York on 25 October 2005, describing what AIDS means to the youngest generation. "It is a disease that has redefined their childhoods, causing them to grow up too fast or sadly not at all", she said. In the worst-affected countries, where life expectancy has plummeted from the mid-60s to the early-30s, turning 18 no longer means reaching adulthood, but rather middle-age.
A global campaign designed to strengthen the commitment to the fight against AIDS is crucial, explained Ms. Veneman, because "the scale of this problem is staggering, but the world has been largely unresponsive". The campaign aims to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, provide paediatric treatment, prevent infection among adolescents and young people, and protect and support children affected by HIV/AIDS. It also provides a platform for urgent and sustained programmes, advocacy and fund-raising to limit the impact of HIV/AIDS on children and help halt the spread of the disease.
Stories of young people who have grown up in the midst of the AIDS epidemic illustrate why education to prevent transmission and break down the stigma associated with the disease is so important. Fria Chia Iskandar at the campaign launch described what it was like to be diagnosed with HIV as a teenager growing up in Indonesia. "I was treated like a monster in my own home; it was a painful experience. My parents didn't mean to be cruel, they just didn't know any better", she said. Now 23 years old and co-chair of the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Ms. Iskandar works to break down this stigma, which creates an added burden for those infected with the virus. "Young people are afraid to get tested and are afraid to disclose their status to doctors who may refuse to treat them", she added.
AIDS peer educator Livey van Wyk of Namibia had a similar experience when she was diagnosed as HIV-positive at 17. Banished by her mother to her grandmother's farm, local people did not want her living among them and would throw stones at her. She described the fight against AIDS as "an uphill battle when stigma and discrimination rule". Young people were "made to feel as if HIV is a punishment for bad behaviour", she said, making it even more difficult for those infected to deal with the disease.
"Unite For Children, Unite Against AIDS" presents an opportunity for real progress to be made through action across a variety of fronts. Some 25 years since the threat of AIDS first emerged, the world is faced with the urgent task of reversing the spread of the virus before the situation becomes even worse. "We have been slow to act and what we have done has not been enough", said Jeanette Kagame, First Lady of Rwanda. We must take united action now, she urged, because "the disease will not wait for us to catch up".
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For more information about the campaign, visit http://www.unicef.org/uniteforchildren/index.html.
Less than 10 per cent of children orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS receive any support;
Less than 10 per cent of pregnant women are offered services to prevent HIV transmission to their infants; and
Less than 5 per cent of young HIV-positive children in need of treatment are receiving it.
The UNICEF global campaign aims by 2010 to:
Reduce the percentage of young people living with HIV/AIDS by 25 per cent globally;
Offer appropriate services to 80 per cent of women needing them to prevent mother-to-child transmission;
provide paediatric AIDS treatment to 80 percent of children in need; and
Reach 80 per cent of children most affected and in need of protection and support.
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