Children living with HIV gain young advocates
20. November 2008
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Young people around the world are being encouraged to take action to help children living with HIV through an action guide being launched today, Universal Children’s Day. The guide, “Prescription for Life”, a joint effort of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, Education International and the Treatment Action Campaign provides information and resources for schools, families, faith groups and communities to empower young people to write letters to pharmaceutical companies and governments to improve testing and treatment for infants and children living with HIV.
“Our global efforts to eradicate AIDS remain far short of what is needed, and for children, the tragedy is all the more acute,” states Linda Hartke, coordinator of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. “The diversity of our partners launching this resource underscore that the future of our children is of paramount concern.”
It is estimated that 2.1 million children, aged under 15, are living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Yet children remain largely forgotten in global and national efforts to address HIV and AIDS. This is especially the case for children’s access to diagnostic testing for HIV and medicines to treat HIV, known as antiretrovirals (ARVs). Currently, only 15 percent of children in need of HIV treatment have access to it. The lack of testing and treatment is particularly severe in Sub-Saharan Africa.
When children living with HIV do not get appropriate treatment, they suffer and die faster than adults living with the virus. Despite evidence that HIV treatment is very successful in children, more than 900 children die of AIDS-related illnesses every day.
Letters generated from the year-long action will be used to keep governments accountable to commitments made in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and also used in focused advocacy with pharmaceutical companies by EAA participants. An exhibit of the letters will be prepared for the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November 2009.
The six page guide is available at http://www.e-alliance.ch/accessmeds/children. The English version can be downloaded immediately and versions in Spanish and French will soon be available. Print copies can be ordered for free.
For more information contact Sara Speicher, +44 7821 860 723.
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance is a broad international network of churches and Christian organizations cooperating in advocacy on food and HIV and AIDS. The Alliance is based in Geneva, Switzerland. For more information, see http://www.e-alliance.ch/
