Every minute of every day, one child dies and four children lose a parent because of AIDS-related illness. AIDS is stealing the childhoods of millions of children. They've become the missing face of AIDS - their story just isn't being heard.
Children, especially children who live in sub-Saharan Africa, are having their childhood, their family life and their hope for the future swept away by HIV and AIDS.
Already 15 million children around the world have been orphaned by AIDS. With no parents to look after them, many poorer children are now missing out on their childhoods. They often have to drop out of school, find work, and look after their younger brothers and sisters.
More and more children are becoming HIV-positive. In 2004 more than 600,000 children were born with the virus. They caught the disease from their mothers while they were growing in the womb, or when they were born or breast-fed - even though simple medicines can stop this from happening. Meanwhile, over half of the people who catch AIDS every day are under the age of 25.
More than two million children living with HIV are missing out on medicines that could keep them alive. UNICEF wants to increase the availability of anti-retroviral treatment (ART) for children from ten per cent to 80 per cent.
This is not only a tragedy for each child affected. It also decimates the development hopes of the countries where they live. Teachers, doctors and farmers are falling ill and dying. Children are being orphaned and taken in by extended families, struggling to cope. Health care systems are breaking under the strain of treating so many with HIV and AIDS. That's why UNICEF is determined to reveal the missing face of children affected by AIDS - and to help children to reclaim their childhoods and their futures.
In the next five years, UNICEF aims to:
- Reduce the spread of the HIV virus to children and young people
- Keep children and their parents alive longer and alive together
- Protect and care for children made vulnerable by AIDS