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HIV & AIDS Prevention and Care |
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The AIDS pandemic has ravaged the communities and lives of millions of children across Africa. The continent remains home to most of the world’s highest rates of HIV infection, and the largest numbers of children who have lost one or both parents to the disease.
UNAIDS estimated in 2005 that worldwide there were 38.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS, of whom 24.5 million were in Sub-Saharan Africa (17.5 million in East and Southern Africa, and 6.9 million in West and Central Africa).
As a result of deaths from AIDS, it is estimated that 12 million children were orphaned in Sub-Saharan Africa as of the year 2007. In 56 African countries from which recent household survey data is available, children who had lost both of their parents were on average 12% less likely to attend school than non-orphans.
World Vision works closely with other organisations to raise awareness within communities and amongst individuals regarding HIV and AIDS and the need to protect children from discrimination caused by the disease.
In Uganda, World Vision has provided educational support, trained health workers, and carried out advocacy and other activities on behalf of 80,000 orphaned and vulnerable children.
Through coalitions and networks, World Vision has lobbied the African Union (AU) to keep the commitments it made during the May 2006 Special Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. World Vision has called attention specifically to the AU’s promise to protect and support five million children orphaned by AIDS by 2015, while ensuring that 80% of orphans and vulnerable children have access to basic services.
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