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From the Spring 2006 Issue
REAL LIFE
SPECIAL SERIES: AIDS in AFRICA
Caring for the children:
The innocent victims of AIDS
By Surya Bhattacharya
Millions
of young people are affected by HIV/AIDS every day. UNICEF is
putting kids first with their new program, Unite For Children
Unite Against AIDS
HIV/AIDS is redefining
the meaning of childhood for millions around the world, depriving
them of their basic human rights such as the care and love of
their parents, an education, future opportunities, and protection
against exploitation and abuse.
“Nearly 25 years into the [HIV/AIDS] pandemic, help is
reaching less than 10 percent of the children affected, leaving
too many to grow up alone, grow up too fast, or not grow up
at all,” said Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN,
during UNICEF’s Unite For Children Unite Against AIDS
campaign launch in New York. “Simply put, AIDS is wreaking
havoc on childhood,” he emphasized.
“Children have not yet been discussed exclusively,”
says Nicole Ireland of UNICEF Canada. In the past, the public
has perceived HIV/AIDS to be a predominantly adult issue that
doesn’t directly link to children. This attitude has resulted
in children not being adequately recognized and educated.
Unite For Children Unite Against AIDS is a new initiative by
UNICEF that will focus on children around the world living with
the HIV/AIDS. The campaign identifies the urgency of their individual
situations and plans to help with more advocacy, programs, and
fundraising.
 Cambodia:
A 16-year-old girl smiles at the Cambodian Centre for the
Protection of Children’s Rights (CCPCR), where she
currently lives, in the south-eastern province of Svay Rieng.
The centre, a community-based NGO, shelters abused or orphaned
girls for up to six months, providing them with a secure
environment, health assistance and education and basic skills
training. Several of the girls at the centre are victims
of sexual abuse and some have tested HIV positive. Photo
courtesy of UNICEF by Shehzad Noorani. |
Did
you know?
• More than 6,000 young people
between the ages of 15 and 24 are newly affected by the
HIV virus every day.
• There are nearly 1,800 new HIV mother-to-child transmissions
every day.
• 1,400 children under the age of 15 die of AIDS-related
illnesses every day. |
 Botswana:
Two girls learn to count using numbered tablets, in a kindergarten
class at the ‘Shining Star’ drop-in centre for
orphaned children, in the city of Francistown, some 400
km north of Gaborone, the capital. Behind them, a recently
trained woman volunteer teacher, Tebogo Sekaneng, writes
on a small chalkboard. Most of the children at the UNICEF-assisted
centre have been orphaned by AIDS. Photo courtesy of UNICEF
by Giacomo Pirozzi. |
OUT
OF AFRICA
Africa is the hardest hit when it comes to children being affected
by HIV/AIDS, but the epidemic also continues to grow at an alarming
rate in South Asia and Eastern Europe.
An estimated 15 million children around the world 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.
All of the 157 countries that UNICEF works in will eventually
be involved in promoting the Unite For Children Unite Against
AIDS initiative. Every week, one new country across the world
launches the campaign. National leaders already involved in
events to launch the campaign 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. Canada’s participation
will begin before the World AIDS conference in August 2006.
 Lesotho
(Left): Sitting on a bed in their home, two brothers hold
up a family portrait showing them with their mother when
they were small, in a village on the outskirts of Maseru,
the capital. The boys, orphaned after losing both their
parents to AIDS, now live alone in the house, receiving
food and money for school fees and books through a local,
UNICEFsupported NGO. Photo courtesy of UNICEF by Giacomo
Pirozzi. |
What
is UNICEF?
For
nearly 60 years UNICEF has been the world’s leader
for children, working in 157 countries to help them survive
and thrive from early childhood through adolescence. The
world’s largest provider of vaccines for poor countries,
UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, quality basic
education for all boys and girls, and the protection of
children from violence,
exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the
voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations,
and governments.
If you want to be involved, visit www.unicef.org
and click on Unite For Children Unite Against AIDS. |
 Botswana
(Far Left): Four children sit outdoors with their aunt with
whom they now live, in the village of Molepolole, some 50
km west of Gaborone, the capital. They are among the six
children of this woman’s two sisters, both of whom
died of AIDS. Photo courtesy of UNICEF by Giacomo Pirozzi. |
How
You Can Help
•
Find out more and spread the word.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions and talk to your
teachers, friends, and family about what’s happening
to children around the world due to HIV/AIDS. Get
the message out there.
• Become an advocate. Get in touch
with an organization like UNICEF, Free the Children, or
the Stephen Lewis Foundation
and talk to them about arranging fundraisers or otherwise
being part of their campaigns.
• Learn from others. Look up peers
in other high schools who are involved in similar programs.
Share your ideas of how to make the world
a better place. |
To
learn more or to get involved, check out:
www.unicef.ca
Unicef Canada has tons of information if you want to get involved
through school, with
the aid of your parents and teachers.
www.stephenlewisfoundation.org
Stephen Lewis is the U.N. Secretary General's
Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa but his love and concern
for Africa started way back in the 1960s when he was a teacher.
He was also the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations in
the 1980s. Now he travels extensively across Africa to bring
attention to women and children ravaged by the pandemic of HIV/AIDS.
www.unaids.org
The Joint United Nations Programme
for HIV/AIDS brings attention to HIV/AIDS causes worldwide.
Produced
with the support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA).
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