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HIV/AIDS Summary Page
The HIV/AIDS virus has been the "plague" of the last twenty years, claiming more lives than the sum total of all the wars, famines, floods and disease in the continent. It has been a dreaded global scourge for which there is no cure. The virus has an uncanny ability to mutate, mocking efforts to produce vaccines. HIV/AIDS victims depend on drug therapies to slow the progress of the virus and control opportunistic infections. For most people in developing countries these AIDS "cocktails" are not affordable. The result is that it has ravaged through communities worldwide to the point where today, more than 40 million adults are thought to be HIV-positive and that number will increase to 100 million by 2005.

The issues surrounding AIDS are surprisingly vast, especially in developing nations. It is argued that it is a development catastrophe eroding many of the development gains made in previous decades. Unlike most diseases, AIDS targets people in the prime of their working lives and as parents. Generally, most people who acquire HIV in Africa become infected before they are 25 years old, and are usually dead before their 25th birthday. This age factor makes AIDS uniquely threatening to families, communities and economies, as a large segment of the working force has been wiped out and child vulnerability has increased as parents die off leaving children in the care of the sick, the elderly, or other children. The World Bank has found that, in countries with HIV/AIDS rates of more than 8 percent the loss of national income is estimated at .8 percent of per capita GDP growth every year. Right now, more than 17 sub-Saharan African countries face that loss. It is also estimated that by 2010, 43 million children will have been orphaned by AIDS.

World Vision's Experience:
HIV/AIDS is a growing pandemic that does not appear to be coming to a near end, and as a result issues surrounding the disease have been given priority by World Vision. World Vision was among the earliest NGOs to come up with a programmatic response once the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS became known. Its first significant response was made in 1990 in Uganda, where World Vision utilized funds from the Government of Uganda through a World Bank (IDA) credit to implement a program of assistance to orphans of HIV/AIDS and war in three districts. In the mid 1990's World Vision formulated an internal policy that requires its Program Offices to add HIV/AIDS related activities within each if its existing health programs. To date, more than 80 projects in 25 countries address AIDS in some way. Most of these programs are in sub-Saharan Africa including Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania. World Vision also sponsors many programs in Asian countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and India.

In general World Vision's programs have been of varying magnitude and focus. One of World Vision's most successful ventures has been a program of assistance to orphans of AIDS in the districts of Rakai and Masaka, in Uganda. This demonstrated the effectiveness of an approach that combines direct support to orphan children, coupled with initiatives geared to enhancing foster family productivity and community recovery to create an environment where the needs of children could be catered for in a caring and sustainable manner.
In order to improve knowledge about the epidemic, World Vision has also targeted youth in the Kwazulu/Natal Province through the Child Survival Project, South Africa. Those efforts prove to be effective in raising awareness regarding transmission and prevention of HIV. Also the program was successful in introducing teachers and parents to key concerns regarding reproductive health, sexual practices, and communication in relationships. The project forged a strong collaboration with the Department of Education resulting in the strengthening of training of teachers in both primary and secondary schools.

Get more resources on AIDS here.

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