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Putting Pen to Paper to Save Children's Lives

18. November 2009

NEW YORK, 17 November 2009— Marking the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance and its UNAIDS partners are calling for action to make the testing and treatment of children with HIV accessible for all. 
The call to action is accompanied by two events: The opening of an exhibition of letters written by children and addressed to pharmaceutical companies and governments (to be displayed from today until Dec. 4, 2009) and a panel of experts on 20 November to discuss the topic of children with HIV.

“If governments and pharmaceutical companies were to increase access to testing and provide appropriate pediatric treatment for children living with HIV, they could save thousands of lives,” said Karen Plater, Associate Secretary, Stewardship and Education for Mission, The Presbyterian Church in Canada and co-chair, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance’s HIV and AIDS Strategy Group

Prescription for Life Campaign

Through the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance’s Prescription for Life campaign, children from more than 14 countries wrote letters to leaders at pharmaceutical companies and government officials asking for more to be done to care for the over two million children living with HIV around the world.

The letters urge simple and affordable diagnostic tests for infants that can be performed on the spot; increased antiretroviral treatment for all HIV-positive expectant mothers; and increased efforts by pharmaceutical companies and governments to find more appropriate and accessible treatments for children and infants.

By the end of 2008, about 275,700 children under the age of 15 were receiving antiretroviral therapy in low- and middle-income countries, up from 198,000 in 2007, 127,300 in 2006 and 75,000 in 2005. These children represent approximately 38% of all children under the age of 15 who are estimated to be in need of antiretroviral therapy worldwide, according to the Towards Universal Access Report 2009 by the World Health Organization.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere should have, including the right to health.  The Convention will be 20 years old this year, and yet every year large numbers of infants die from AIDS-related illnesses without ever being diagnosed. Others die because they don’t have access to appropriate pediatric treatments and still more could have avoided contracting the virus if their mothers had access to the testing and treatment that could have prevented their children from contracting HIV.

CRC@20 Events

The exhibit launch on the evening of Nov. 19 at 6:00 pm in the United Nations first floor gallery outside of Conference Room One will include a local child who participated in the campaign as well as speakers from the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, UNICEF and UNAIDS, who are co-sponsoring the events.

A panel of experts in pediatric AIDS will discuss what needs to be done to help children with HIV on November 20, at the Danny Kaye Room at UNICEF House, Three United Nations Plaza, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. The panel includes Dr. Deborah Birx, Director of the Global AIDS Program, Center for Disease Control, US; Dr. Shaffiq Essajee, Director of Clinical Operations and Senior Advisor in Pediatrics, Clinton Foundation; Mr. Rob Dintruff, Director, Commercial Development, Abbott; Dr. Rene Ehounou Ekpini, Chief, HIV/AIDS (PMTCT) Health Section, UNICEF; and Father Ed Phillips, CEO/ Chairman of the Board of Directors Eastern Deanery AIDS Relief Program Nairobi, Kenya and Mission Education and Planned Gift Officer, Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.



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