To commemorate World AIDS Day, we’re launching a series of blog posts to educate, inspire and update you about the fight against HIV/AIDS. In this post, Michael Fazzino (he’s a new writer to the ONE Blog, but you may have seen him on our One Campus blog) talks about (RED)’s big World AIDS Day project!
This Wednesday is World AIDS Day, and while ONE members across the country are already championing the issue, we want to send out some exciting news from our sister organization, (RED).
On Wednesday, (RED) is illuminating the world’s most iconic landmarks to raise awareness for World AIDS Day. Last year, nearly half a million babies were born with HIV — but with access to medication, a pregnant mother can stop the transmission of HIV to her child.
With continued funding to organizations like the Global Fund, the number of babies born with HIV could be zero by 2015, creating the first AIDS-free generation in 30 years.
This World AIDS Day, cities around the world will cast red light on their most distinctive landmarks. From the Sydney Opera House to Paris’ City Hall and Fountains, from the London Eye to Cape Town’s Table Mountain, from Niagara Falls to the Seattle Space Needle, the world will turn (RED) to highlight one goal — we can have a world where virtually no child is born with HIV by 2015.
We’re asking people to meet up at their local landmark to watch and discuss how we can help create the first AIDS-free generation. Go to Meetup.com to find an event near you, and if you can’t find an existing meet-up to join, you can always create your own and help put your city on the map!
Check out our full list of participating cities across the globe below –- and no matter where you are this World AIDS Day, we hope to see you there! Read more about this spectacular event on (RED)’s blog.
To commemorate World AIDS Day, we’re launching a series of blog posts to educate, inspire and update you about the fight against HIV/AIDS. Keep an eye out for posts like this one on the ONE Blog throughout the week
Fortunata, who is HIV-positive, and her HIV-negative daughter, Florida
Every year on December 1, the world marks another anniversary of the global HIV epidemic. This year, as we take time on the ONE Blog to mark the week of World AIDS Day, we see opportunities that make us very optimistic about bringing this epidemic to an end, and an equally long list of challenges to overcome.
Let’s start with the good news: AIDS deaths are declining, new infections are decreasing in some countries and more than 5 million people are alive thanks to life-saving antiretroviral treatment (Check out UNAIDS’ new report for details).
Donors have also responded with historic levels of support, reaching about $8 billion in 2009, and another $8 billion from domestic sources, including governments, businesses and individuals. And there’s more help on the way, with recent good news on a number of new HIV prevention technologies (which we’ll be blogging about tomorrow).
On World AIDS Day, our friends at Blood:Water Mission—an organization that works to creatively and thoughtfully raise awareness and funds for the HIV/AIDS and water crises (including some fantastic work earlier this year around the Water for the World Act)—unveiled a brand new website.
Check out the site today and read stories from Africa, watch the video on the homepage, even learn how to start your own campaign (including “Water Walks” and the Ride:Well Tour). And don’t forget to share it with others!
UNICEF recently issued their fourth stocktaking report examining the devastating impact that the AIDS epidemic has on children. The report, which focuses a lot on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, underscores the urgency in “establishing early infant diagnosis and preventing HIV transmission to babies.”
You can read the full report here, and watch UNICEF’s video report here:
On World AIDS Day, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) launched its Five-Year Strategy, outlining the direction of the program for its next phase. The strategy takes into account lessons learned in the first five years of the program, increases commitments around service delivery, and further emphasizes sustainability.
Specifically, PEPFAR’s next phase will:
Transition from an emergency response to promotion of sustainable country programs.
Strengthen partner government capacity to lead the response to this epidemic and other health demands.
Expand prevention, care, and treatment in both concentrated and generalized epidemics.
Integrate and coordinate HIV/AIDS programs with broader global health and development programs to maximize impact on health systems.
Invest in innovation and operations research to evaluate impact, improve service delivery and maximize outcomes.
New program targets were also announced around prevention (support the prevention of 12 million new HIV infections, double the number of at-risk babies born HIV-free), care and support and treatment (provide direct support for more than 4 million people on treatment, support care for more than 12 million people), and sustainability (support training and retention of more than 140,000 new health care workers to strengthen health systems).
Forthcoming annexes will provide further information about specific areas within the strategy.
Ambassador Eric Goosby, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, just participated in a town hall-style session with the Kaiser Family Foundation to discuss PEPFAR’s new five-year strategy earlier today. You can view the webcast here.
Here’s a partner post from Compassion International, another entry in our World AIDS Day blog series. The post below is one of their “Stories of Hope.” Read the rest of these tales here. And don’t forget to check out their brand new AIDS website, too!
It’s early in the morning in Ethiopia, and Bekelesh and Ato sit in the front yard of the home they share with their two daughters. The house is small, with only a bed and a bench made from dry wood in its single room. A curtain hangs around the bed to provide a bit of privacy. Although the house is small, the love that fills it can’t be contained.
When Bekelesh and Ato first married, their only enemy was poverty. As the family grew, their two daughters filled their home with giggles and joy. When they enrolled their oldest daughter, Simagne, in Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program, Bekelesh and Ato felt their family would finally have a future.
“It was 12 years ago that we got married,” Ato says. “Back then … we were hale and hearty. We used to look like colorful fish swimming in the warm pond of life and love. Yes, if you have love you feel as if you have everything in this world and the world to come. We used to love each other as we still do, but HIV …,” his voice trails off. In November of 2005, during a voluntary counseling and testing campaign conducted by a local Compassion project, Bekelesh and Ato learned that they were both HIV-positive.
Although a diagnosis of AIDS is always devastating, families in poverty have no chance for medical care — making the disease even more burdensome for them. Without medical intervention, death comes quickly for AIDS victims, and often there is little time to prepare children for the devastating loss of their parents.
But thanks to the support and care they receive through Compassion’s AIDS Initiative, Bekelesh and Ato are living their life instead of contemplating their death. “Living with HIV doesn’t mean dying tomorrow and/or soon afterwards,” Ato says. “You can live a long life as long as you strictly follow the advice you receive from your counselors.”
In the poorest countries in Africa, many parents do not receive lifesaving care and treatment like Ato and Bekelesh have. Although nothing can take away the fears of a parent with a terminal disease, families in the Compassion program know that their children will be cared for even after they are gone. “Now, even if we die, our children will not be left [as poor orphans]. God, using Compassion, will continue to minister to our daughters’ needs, and they will [each] become somebody in the future.”
-Brandy Campbell, Feature Writing Specialist, Compassion International
Perhaps one of the most exciting milestones that was celebrated this World AIDS Day was the extraordinary progress made in ending mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In 2004, only 10% of women and their unborn children globally were covered by prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services. In 2008, that number had gone up to 45%. This increase in just the past four years is remarkable not only in terms of statistics, but in terms of stories, as well.
Awetash lives in Ethiopia. She is HIV-positive, but thanks to a Global Fund-financed program delivering prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services, Awetash’s three year-old daughter, Tigst, was born HIV-free. In Nigeria, Mulikat—who is HIV-positive—also delivered a son who was free of the disease. Around the world, PMTCT services are becoming increasingly common. The Global Fund alone has provided 790,000 doses of medication to prevent transmission over the past six years, offering health and hope to newborns and their moms across the globe.
What’s truly exciting is that with continued investments in global health, mother-to-child transmission of HIV can be nearly eliminated by 2015. No mother anywhere will have to fear passing on the disease to her baby.
While the Global Fund and others have made tremendous progress in the fight against AIDS, there is much still to be done. PMTCT is a critical first step, but more people still need prevention services. Others await treatment. Fully funding the Global Fund is essential not only to saving lives, but also to helping low- and middle-income countries create healthier and more productive populations.
To learn more about what you can do to support the Global Fund, click here.
-Natasha Bilimoria, President, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
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The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
It’s early in the morning in Ethiopia, and Bekelesh and Ato sit in the front yard of the home they share with their two daughters. The house is small, with only a bed and a bench made from dry wood in its single room. A curtain hangs around the bed to provide a bit of privacy. Although the house is small, the love that fills it can’t be contained.
Perhaps one of the most exciting milestones that was celebrated this World AIDS Day was the extraordinary progress made in ending mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In 2004, only 10% of women and their unborn children globally were covered by prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services. In 2008, that number had gone up to 45%. This increase in just the past four years is remarkable not only in terms of statistics, but in terms of stories, as well.
What’s truly exciting is that with continued investments in global health, mother-to-child transmission of HIV can be nearly eliminated by 2015. No mother anywhere will have to fear passing on the disease to her baby.
