AIDS orphans wait for their free breakfast provided by Islamic charity Jamra in Dakar, Senegal
REUTERS/Claire Soares
LONDON (AlertNet) - Global efforts to tackle AIDS are neglecting the 15 million children who have lost at least one parent to the disease, experts told an international conference on HIV on Thursday.
In sub-Saharan Africa alone an estimated 18 million children will have lost one or both parents to AIDS by 2010 – an increase of six million in just four years, according to U.N. forecasts.
“Despite progress in some areas, children are still the missing face of AIDS in the global response to the pandemic,” said Ann Veneman, executive director of the U.N. children’s fund UNICEF.
“The world must act now, urgently and decisively, to ensure that the next generation is AIDS-free.”
The conference in London will bring together 90 international organisations, governments and non-governmental organisations to look at how to improve the plight of children affected by AIDS, including those who are HIV positive themselves and those looking after sick or dying parents.
“Less than 10 per cent of the children who have been orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS receive public support or services,” Veneman said.
Millions of children infected with HIV do not have access to appropriate treatment, according to UNICEF, which is co-hosting the meeting with Britain’s Department for International Development.
“Twenty five years into the epidemic, considerable progress has been made in mobilising the world against AIDS,” said Dr Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, the U.N.’s HIV/AIDS programme.
“But when it comes to accessing HIV prevention and treatment services, children and young people continue to be left behind. If we are to break the cycle of HIV infection, children and young people must know how to protect themselves from HIV.”
The third annual Global Partners Forum on Children Affected by HIV and AIDS will focus on ways to:
Strengthen families’ capacity to care for orphans and other children affected by HIV
Mobilise community-based support for affected families
Guarantee access to HIV treatment
Reduce stigma for children affected by AIDS
Ensure access to education
UNICEF said education was one of the most important weapons in preventing the spread of AIDS, but school fees remained a barrier for the very children most at risk in many of the worst affected countries. It urged the international community to increase funding to governments which abolish school fees.
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