United Press International - October 26, 2005
Lauren Mack

"Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS," a five year plan announced Tuesday, will provide pediatric treatment, infection prevention, protection and support for children affected by HIV/AIDS. This campaign, sponsored by UNICEF and UNAIDS, brings attention to the world that AIDS is robbing millions of children of their childhoods.

Every minute a child dies of an AIDS-related illness, said the U.N. agencies.

"We must all unite to reach young people with the life-saving information they need," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at U.N. headquarters in New York Tuesday. "As we know, in the world of AIDS, silence is death."

Millions of children are living with AIDS but only a small fraction of the billions of dollars, $6.1 billion in 2004, dedicated to fighting AIDS actually goes to help youth, said UNICEF, the lead agency sponsoring the plan.

HIV-positive since she was 16, Livey Van Wyk faced discrimination and had stones thrown at her when people in Namibia found out she was HIV-positive. Through counseling and support from community HIV awareness groups, including one funded by UNICEF, Livey has learned to live with HIV. She is now a peer educator.

"I didn't know a person with HIV could have a future," said Van Wyk, 20, at the launch ceremony.

The children of sub-Saharan Africa account for more than 85 percent of all children under 15 living with AIDS, but HIV/AIDS directly affects millions of children all over the world, said UNICEF.

Most go without treatment.

Children account for one in six global AIDS-related deaths and one in seven new global HIV infections, said UNICEF. Worldwide, less than 5 percent of HIV-infected children in need of AIDS treatment are receiving it, said the U.N. Children's Fund.

"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," said Annan.

Following appeals at the 2005 Group of Eight Summit and the 2005 World Summit, UNICEF and UNAIDS devised this global campaign, which takes a child-based approach, to address the Millennium Development Goals of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015, said UNICEF. Governments have committed to addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS on children, but the global community has made little progress in reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Failure to meet this Millennium Development Goal, formed at the Millennium Summit in 2000, will hamper other MDGs that include reducing poverty and hunger, providing elementary education, and reducing child mortality, said UNICEF.

The five-year plan has four goals including prevention, protection and treatment. The campaign hopes to provide 80 percent of women with prenatal care to prevent transmission of the disease from mother to baby and provide 80 percent of children with pediatric treatment, public support and services by 2010, the U.N. agencies said. The campaign also aims to reduce the number of HIV-infected youth by 25 percent by 2010.

The vast majority of the 500,000 children under the age of 15 who die from AIDS-related illnesses each year contract HIV through mother-to-child transmission. Fewer than 10 percent of women receive services to prevent the transmission of HIV to their babies, said UNICEF.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has been an international concern for years. Two decades after the crisis began the majority of young people still do not know how to avoid the disease and do not have the information and services to protect themselves, said UNICEF. The campaign hopes to change this trend.

It is not just children infected with HIV who are suffering.

The children of infected parents, especially girls, must take on adult tasks to survive. Often children must drop out of school to work to put food on the table, to care for their sick parents, and look after younger siblings. Less than 10 percent of these children receive outside support, said UNICEF. Many are orphans.

Over 15 million children have lost at least one parent to AIDS, said UNICEF, that number is expected to rise. The agency estimates 18 million children will have lost at least one parent to AIDS by 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

Kerrel McKay was 9 years old when her father was diagnosed with AIDS.

"That was, in effect, the end of my childhood," said McKay, 20, who grew up in Jamaica.

McKay's father was unable to work and she felt helpless. During his battle with AIDS, McKay's father never discussed his illness. Seeing the discrimination that others endured in her community, McKay did not tell anyone about her father's condition.

She considered suicide.

"For six years, my dad's illness and looming death defined my life," said McKay.

It was through the help of non-governmental organizations and a UNICEF-sponsored support group which gave her hope. McKay is now an advocate for children affected and orphaned by AIDS.

It will take $55 billion over the next three years to confront the AIDS epidemic, estimated UNAIDS.

In a race against time, the plan's sponsors hope to reverse the dismal statistics, 1,400 children die each day while 6,000 youth 15-24 years old will be infected with HIV, said UNICEF.

"AIDS continues to tear apart families and communities, leaving behind 15 million orphans and robbing countries of their future," said Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director.

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