Breaking the Cycle
HIV/AIDS devastates the lives of millions of children. Over 2 million children are HIV positive, and 12 million children in sub-Saharan Africa alone have been orphaned by AIDS. Left untreated, half of all HIV-infected children will die by the age of two. As the death toll keeps rising, progress in education and healthcare is slowly eroding, and entire communities are in danger of losing their economic and social viability. UNICEF is committed to helping those who are suffering the consequences of HIV/AIDS and to break the cycle of this deadly disease.
Mother-to-child transmission is the main cause of HIV infection in young children—and it is on the rise. UNICEF has implemented programs worldwide to stop the transmission of HIV from mother to child. We test and treat pregnant women so they don’t pass on the disease in the first place, and we treat infected babies so they can live full, healthy lives.
Care for Vulnerable Children
We are there for children when the rest of the world has abandoned them. Our support centers offer children who live with sick parents or alone, or who have HIV/AIDS themselves, a safe place to get a meal, learn a trade, and play with other children. And we help orphanages all over the world provide HIV-positive children with proper medical care and a safe home.
UNICEF is committed to fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We educate communities to remove the stigma of the disease, and we offer HIV prevention education so that women and young people can protect themselves from the disease. We are at the forefront of a global movement to halt the devastation of HIV/AIDS, and we will do whatever it takes to protect the rights and lives of those affected by the disease.
Related Links
June 19, 2008
Support for households headed by children and the elderly in Mozambique
It is mid-morning but Rosina, 16, is still at home, hurrying to finish her domestic chores before going to school. Her home is a small, dark hut where she has been living for about a year with her three brothers, the youngest of whom is only three years old.
June 2, 2008
Damienne's story: Raising awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention through open dialogue
Damienne, a 17-year-old high school student, has been a peer educator for five years, teaching her classmates about HIV prevention. Her goal, she says, is to get people to speak out and to bury the taboos.
April 21, 2008
Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in rural Zambia
Zambia suffers from one of the world's highest rates of HIV. Thanks to an agreement between UNICEF, the non-governmental organization Family Health International and the Zambian Ministry of Health, prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs are being established in all of Luapula, Zambia's rural clinics.
