HIV/AIDS: Caritas Australia's global approach

“The drama of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) threatens not just some nations or societies, but the whole of humanity. It knows no frontiers or geography, race, age, or social condition … Only a response that takes into account both the medical aspects of the illness, as well as the human, cultural, ethical and religious dimensions of life can offer complete solidarity to its victims and raise the hope that the epidemic can be controlled and turned back” — Pope John Paul II    

When good news isn’t good: No time for complacency on HIV/AIDS

Take part in the HAART for Children campaign.

Have a HAART: supporting children in the midst of the pandemic

Caritas, through our extensive networks throughout the developing world, have discovered children are still being forgotten in the midst of this pandemic.

The evidence that treatment is very successful in children living with HIV and Tuberculosis is clear yet there remains significant obstacles for hundreds of thousands of children to obtain the paediatric care they need.

Caritas is launching “HAART for Children: greater Access to Paediatric HIV and TB testing and treatment”, a campaign that urges governments and pharmaceutical companies to help overcome these obstacles by developing medicines that will treat HIV and TB specifically for children.  HAART stands for Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART), the term given to treatment regimes to aggressively suppress viral replication and slow the progress of HIV disease.

Children in Tanzania attending an AIDS education session.  Photo credit: Sean Sprague.

All that is lacking is the funding and political will. Advocacy to facilitate access to medicines for children already has made a real difference. In low- and middle-income countries, 127,300 children received ART in 2006 compared with 75,000 in 2005.

Find out how you can have a HAART.  Email the HAART postcard to your friends.

CHAN and the Power of partnerships

The HAART for Children campaign illustrates how Caritas works at both an international and local level to confront the virus.  People living with HIV/AIDS often are stigmatised. This requires community education and often counselling. The impacts of HIV/AIDS are numerous and the challenges immense.  Caritas partners work hard to support these people and their communities at that very local level.

However the complexity and global nature of this pandemic requires us to be engaged at an international level as well, to address issues of structural injustice on behalf of those who do not have the opportunity to do it for themselves.  The campaign is an initiative of the Catholic HIV/AIDS network (CHAN) which currently incorporates Catholic agencies from Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. The secretariat for CHAN is based in Geneva and is coordinated by Fr Bob Vitillo. Bob represents CHAN members at many high level meetings including UNAIDS and World Health Organization (WHO).  The role of the Catholic Church at these meetings is vital given the extent of the Church’s work on HIV/AIDS throughout the world.

Decisions made at this level have a significant impact on the social conditions of people living with HIV/AIDS for example how people are treated in clinics and hospitals, how stigma is addressed within communities, provision of information and education and perhaps most significantly how people can get access to the life saving antiretroviral drugs.
Your decision to support HAART for Children will also allow us to help improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable and marginalised by the pandemic — children. 

The Caritas response to HIV/AIDS is threefold:
• educating and empowering the public about HIV/AIDS;
• supporting people with and those affected by HIV/AIDS;
• and working at an international level to advocate for improving HIV/AIDS related policy and practice.

The global effort against the virus has had significant success with new infections peaking in 1996 and declining to around 2.7 million in 2007. The estimated number of AIDS deaths has also fallen from 2.2 million in 2005 to 2 million in 2007.

Such advances are in part due to the Millennium Development Goal campaign to tackle HIV and ensuring the increase in dispersal and efficacy of Anti-Retro Viral drugs combined with the work that organisations like Caritas have done in reducing stigma and educating about the causes and how to prevent HIV.

However there is no time for complacency. An estimated 33 million people are currently living with HIV. New infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have skyrocketed. And 15 million children worldwide have lost a parent or been orphaned to AIDS.

Media Release: Give children with HIV a chance says Caritas President, 24 November 2009.

Global facts on HIV/AIDS

• 33 million people were living with the virus in 2007
• 15 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS
• Sub-Sahara Africa has 67% of those living with the virus despite having 10% of the global population
• 90% of children living with HIV contracted it from their mother despite this being avoidable with medication
• In 5 years coverage of AV treatment in poorer countries increased tenfold, resulting in the first decline in the number of AIDS deaths since the epidemic was recognized in the 1980s
• Catholic institutions care for nearly 27% of those living with the virus globally