GAC Marks World AIDS Day
November 30, 2007 - Statement from Jennifer Delaney, Executive Director of Global Action for Children
The following may be quoted from. For additional information or questions, please contact GAC Communications Director Janet Hodur at jhodur@globalactionforchildren.org or 202-589-0808 x224.
December 1 will mark World AIDS Day, an annual, solemn reminder of the pandemic which has become so deeply and thoroughly entrenched in our cultures and lives. In the week leading up to World AIDS Day, I was privileged to be at the Saddleback Church AIDS conference, where Hillary Clinton announced her commitment to US$50 billion for AIDS. I heard from the First Lady of Rwanda, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Mark Dybul, and was inspired by Saddleback Church leaders Rick and Kay Warren, Elizabeth Styffe, and the thousands of people who came to find out what they could do to join in the fight against AIDS.
One might wonder, with all the newspaper headlines, new studies, endless statistics, red ribbons, and drug trials that come and go, what makes December 1 different from any other day in the fight against AIDS? It is a day to remind the world of those who have lost their lives to AIDS, and encourage people to join the fight to save lives.
While HIV/AIDS is tearing apart families by taking parents, brothers, and sisters, millions are coming together, mobilizing to find a cure and prevent more parents and children from becoming infected, and to help care for those communities overstretched in caring for the millions of orphans who have lost their parents to AIDS. In just two short years, 20 million children worldwide will be orphaned by AIDS. Less than 10 percent of those currently facing that situation receive any kind of support.
These numbers are daunting, but hope remains. This week, at Saddleback Church, I was inspired and encouraged in the fight. I met hundreds or ordinary citizens who asked "What can I do?" and heeded the call. The fact is you can do something, and you don’t have to go to Africa to do it. You can help fight AIDS sitting at your computer anywhere in the country or world, by letting your elected official know you care about AIDS, and you care about children orphaned by AIDS. One way to do this is by writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Click here to learn how.
Get informed. Take action. You can make a difference.
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Global Action for Children is a nonpartisan, results-oriented coalition dedicated to advocating for orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world. GAC seeks to increase the level of funding from the governments of wealthy countries to orphans and other vulnerable children in some of the world’s poorest countries
