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The Fight Against HIV/AIDS
AIDS is the greatest medical, social and economic challenge of this generation. As a Christian humanitarian organization, World Vision has made AIDS prevention, care and advocacy a top priority. In 1990, World Vision began helping orphans in Rakai, Uganda – the epidemic’s ground zero. Other early programs included serving Romanian children infected with the AIDS virus and providing support for Thai women and girls trying to escape prostitution. By the mid-1990s, World Vision started to incorporate HIV/AIDS-related training into all of its health programs.
Today, World Vision has AIDS programs in several nations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where nearly 30 million people carry the virus.
- In rural Uganda, World Vision has helped tens of thousands of orphans, many of them living in child-headed households, as well as foster families caring for children who have lost parents to the disease.
- In South Africa, World Vision introduced training for teachers helping students develop attitudes leading to behavior change to prevent the spread of AIDS.
- In Zambia and India, World Vision provides peer-education to truck drivers and commercial sex workers, two of the groups at highest risk for AIDS.
- In conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, World Vision has studied and now is helping Africans suffering from depression related to HIV infection in Uganda, where, of those infected, one in five is clinically depressed, often suicidal.
World Vision also fights AIDS through its HopeChild sponsorship programs. In early 2003, the organization launched The Hope Tour, during which events are held in several U.S. cities to urge individuals and churches to take action.
AIDS: A global snapshot
The number of people living with AIDS exceeds 40 million – roughly equal to the population of Spain. Since the disease was discovered in 1981, AIDS has killed more than 28 million people. Nine nations in sub-Saharan Africa have prevalence rates of 15 percent or higher. In Botswana, nearly four in 10 adults are infected. While rates of infection are lower in China and India, their billion-plus populations translate into millions of infected people.
More than 14 million children worldwide have lost parents to AIDS. Many are raised by grandparents or foster parents. Tens of thousands of African families are headed by children, some as young as 11.
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