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Dear Gillian Merron MP

Every ninety seconds a child dies from an AIDS-related illness and each day over 1,000 children are newly infected with HIV. Much more can, and must, be done to prevent more children becoming infected and to provide life saving treatment and care to the 2.5 million children living with HIV around the world.

Millions of children are losing their mums and dads to HIV and AIDS, having to leave school to nurse family members and care for younger brothers and sisters when their parents die. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, an estimated 11.4 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS – a figure roughly equivalent to the total number of children in England and Wales. These children desperately need help.

Three years ago the UK Government made a bold pledge to place children at the heart of its international HIV and AIDS strategy. The cornerstone of this pledge was a commitment to earmark 10 per cent of its HIV budget for children affected by AIDS.

The UK is now revising this strategy and I am concerned that the Government may not continue its financial commitment to children. As Gareth Thomas MP recently stated, the 10 per cent earmark was designed to galvanise the international response to children affected by AIDS. I am worried that without the UK’s continued leadership on this matter, children affected by AIDS will slip off the political agenda.

Please ensure that the 10 per cent earmark for children affected by AIDS is a key feature of the new strategy.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

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