UNAIDS - 14 October 2009

The newly appointed president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, opened the meeting.

Addressing the conference, Mr Sidibe stressed the importance of the faith community in delivering health care services and spreading hope, acknowledging that 30-70 percent of all health care in African countries is provided by faith based organizations (FBOs).

In partnership with faith based organizations the virtual elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV could be possible, said Mr Sidibe: "We have the technology. We have the will. And we have one of the most powerful networks on earth as key partners: the wide-reaching, dedicated communities of faith, driven by deep devotion to social justice and human rights."

Mr Sidibe also highlighted the unique position of religious leaders as gatekeepers of large communities, to mobilize and sustain a vibrant grassroots movement in the AIDS response û a movement which urgently needs reinvigorating to call for prevention of mother-to-child transmission and integrated TB and HIV services at a national level.

With an estimated 370,000 children being born with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa every year and only 45 percent of HIV positive pregnant women receiving ARV prophylaxis on the continent, the meeting offers an opportunity to promote dialogue among Roman Catholic Church leaders on the urgent need to expand access to testing and treatment for children living with HIV and TB and to promote greater coverage of measures to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV.

During his visit to Rome, Mr Sidibe also had the opportunity to meet with representatives from Sant' Egidio, the largest Catholic Lay volunteer organization in the world which provides 70,000 people with ART and nutrition in 10 sub-Saharan countries.

The conference will run from 14 to 16 of October and brings together medical doctors, member of religious orders, heads of Catholic run AIDS projects, professors of Theology, as well as representatives for the pharmaceutical industry.

It was co-sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, UNAIDS, World Health Organization Stop TB Department, Stop TB Partnership, Health Commission of the Unions of Superiors General, and the æBambino Ges· Children's Hospital.

Preventing mothers from dying and babies from becoming infected with HIV is one of the key priority areas in the UNAIDS outcome framework 2009-2011

Resources:

Related information:

Religion and AIDS - UNAIDS strategic approach - http://www.unaids.org/en/Partnerships/Civil+society/unaidsStrateg icApproach.asp

Speeches:

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe. Rome, (14 October 2009) - http://data.unaids.org/pub/SpeechEXD/2009/20091410_sp_rome_carita s_en.pdf

Feature stories:

Developing strategies to work with FBOs (10 October 2008) - http://www.aegis.org/news/unaids/2008/UN080406.html

External links:

Vatican: The Holy See - http://www.vatican.va/

The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See - http://vatican.usembassy.gov/english

Caritas Internationalis - http://www.caritas.org/

Sant' Egidio - http://www.santegidio.org/

Publications:

Joint action for results: UNAIDS outcome framework, 2009 û 2011 (pdf, 388 Kb) - http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2009/jc1713_joint_action_en.pdf

A faith-based response to HIV in Southern Africa: the Choose to Care initiative (pdf, 1.48 Mb) - http://data.unaids.org/pub/Agenda/2005/jc1281-choosetocare_en.pdf

Engaging with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: a primer for faith-based organizations (pdf, 719 Kb) - http://www.theglobalfund.org/documents/friends/TGF_APrimerForFBO. pdf

A report of a theological workshop focusing on HIV- and AIDS-related stigma (pdf, 1.09 Mb) - http://data.unaids.org/Publications/IRC-pub06/jc1119-theological_ en.pdf?preview=true
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