Protecting children and women from HIV/AIDS

Protecting children and women from HIV/AIDS

Real lives

Real lives

UNICEF program helps educate children about HIV and AIDS

UNICEF program helps educate children about HIV and AIDS

 

Protecting children and women from HIV/AIDS

© UNICEF Myanmar/2004/Noorani

HIV/AIDS is spreading at an alarming rate in Myanmar.  The disease has now spread to the general population, with more mothers and children becoming infected with the virus. Only a small proportion of those infected with HIV/AIDS are aware of this fact, due in part to a lack of voluntary, confidential testing and counseling services.

UNICEF works to prevent women, children and youth from contracting HIV/AIDS, and supports persons infected with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS by:

• Working with partners to strengthen the national policy response to the epidemic;

• Increasing adolescents’ access to information about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases;

• Providing children and youth – both in and out of school – with ‘life skills’ training to help them develop the knowledge and abilities they need to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS;

• Preventing the mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS by encouraging voluntary testing and counseling for pregnant women;

• Improving the capacity of health staff to treat people infected with HIV/AIDS;

• Providing home-based care and support services for people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS; and

• Targeting particularly vulnerable groups such as migrant families, ethnic groups and the poor with a full range of prevention and support services.