UNICEF in action
To a large and unacceptable degree, children are missing from global awareness, budgets, and action on HIV/AIDS. UNICEF’s UNITE FOR CHILDREN, UNITE AGAINST AIDS campaign, launched in 2005, aims to put children at the centre of the HIV and AIDS agenda and to make sure that the voices of children and young people are heard. UNICEF is one of the 10 co-sponsoring agencies of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UN Framework for Supporting Country-Level Action Against HIV/AIDS in the Asia and Pacific Region) and works at regional and country level in a coordinated manner with the other agencies to support national responses and SAARC to implement its regional HIV/AIDS strategy. UNICEF ROSA has been instrumental in reaching out to religious leaders through the South Asia Inter-Religious Council on HIV and AIDS established in 2004; they have provided a potent voice for tolerance, understanding and acceptance for those living with HIV. Partnerships with the media and celebrities to focus greater attention on HIV and AIDS are important. Throughout the region UNICEF’s offices have formed relationships with popular bands (STRINGS website), cricket stars, high profile celebrities, politicians, and others including the Indian Olympics Association. Pakistan’s National AIDS Programme developed an ethical guide on reporting about HIV and AIDS for journalists, which ROSA is promoting across the region as good practice. In South Asia UNICEF has defined four core areas of concern, the ‘Four P’s’: • Preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) – UNICEF’s goal is to ensure that by 2010, 80 per cent of pregnant women have access to services to prevent HIV transmission from mother-to-child, including access to information, counselling and testing, and if necessary, anti-retroviral drugs as a prophylaxis, safe birthing options and infant feeding counselling. The comprehensive PMTCT approach ensures follow-up care, treatment and support for women and children after delivery, along with their partners. In collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF ROSA is supporting countries to develop and implement appropriate PMTCT strategies in all countries in South Asia, with a major emphasis on primary prevention of infection in women of child-bearing age. • Preventing the spread of HIV among adolescents and young people – Working with partners, UNICEF's specific goal by 2019 in South Asian countries is to ensure that at least 30% of adolescents (10-18) years, both in and out of school, have correct information and relevant skills and services to reduce HIV risk and vulnerability. UNICEF has made prevention among adolescents a key in its fight against HIV, with priority towards ensuring comprehensive prevention, care and support, particularly for those with high risk behaviours or in especially vulnerable situations. This includes working with child sex workers (boys and girls), adolescents who are using and abusing drugs, and children made vulnerable through living on the streets or in institutions. UNICEF ROSA has been supporting countries to develop focussed approaches to ensure high risk adolescents have access to information, skills and services to reduce their vulnerability to HIV and for all adolescents to have core knowledge and skills on HIV and AIDS (LSBE Assessment and the Forum report). • Providing appropriate, high-quality paediatric treatment – UNICEF’s goal is to provide either antiretroviral treatment (ART), antibiotics, or both to 80 per cent of children in need by 2010. As WHO pointed out last year, less than five per cent of the one million people in resource-poor settings receiving antiretrovirals were children. UNICEF argues that if children represent 15 per cent of the disease burden, then 15 per cent of those on ARTs should be children. ROSA collaborated in 2006 with WHO to develop paediatric ART guidelines for Asia and support governments to develop national plans on paediatric HIV and AIDS. • Protecting and supporting children affected by HIV/AIDS – UNICEF’s goal is to reach 80 per cent of children most in need by 2010. Through the UNITE FOR CHILDREN, UNITE AGAINST AIDS campaign, UNICEF is supporting government efforts to provide orphans and children affected by HIV and AIDS with access to social services, care, and social-psychological support. This work is guided by the Framework for the Protection, Care and Support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Living in a World with HIV and AIDS . To learn more about HIV and AIDS related programmes and partnerships being undertaken by UNICEF in South Asian countries click to see fact sheets on the right.
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