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
March 29, 2009
UNICEF working to teach HIV/AIDS prevention to young people in Guinea
Nene Gallé Barry sells charcoal in a very poor area of the Koloma quarter in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. She is 18 now, but left her home village 4 years ago to earn a living in the city. She has a boyfriend and is sexually active but, until recently, she had never heard of AIDS and had never seen or used a condom.
March 5, 2009
Communities provide a bigger family for orphaned children in Rwanda
Bamporeze is a non-governmental organization that started a community-based protection program for children orphaned by AIDS in Rwanda soon after the genocide, in 1995. Around 150,000 people live with HIV in Rwanda; 19,000 of them are children. Clementine, age 18, lives in eastern Rwanda and has been deeply affected by HIV/AIDS.
January 14, 2009
Protecting orphans and vulnerable children in the DR Congo
Life is hard for the vast majority of children in DR Congo. For the country’s orphans, who make up almost 10 percent of the population, life can be even harder. Chantal, now 10, lost her father in 2001. His death left her mother without the means to raise Chantal and her siblings. Her young life was reduced to a base struggle for survival.
