UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman
Remarks of Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director, UNICEF
“Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS” Launch Hour
25 October 2005, New York, NY
Good morning. Thank you, Kerrel, for that introduction and for your moving remarks, and thanks to everyone for joining us today.
We are here to embark on an important and serious task as we launch a global campaign on children and AIDS.
Today our collective work in the fight against this disease moves to another level of commitment and action.This is a campaign requiring many things,including strong leadership and unshakable conviction.In that regard, it is appropriate, and indeed a great privilege, to introduce a man who has shown both of these in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
As Secretary-General, Kofi Annan has made it a “personal priority” to tackle the devastating impacts of this disease.He has lent his voice, his dedication and his leadership urging, even demanding, that we all to do the same.
His wife, Nane Annan, is an equally ardent supporter of efforts to halt this epidemic, and we thank her for being here with us today, as well.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
[United Nations Secretary-General speaks]
Mr. Secretary-General, thank you for your passionate remarks on the need to unite against AIDS.
We are here today because, 25 years into the pandemic, this very visible disease continues to have an invisible face, a missing face, a child’s face.
Children are “missing” from the HIV/AIDS picture in many ways.They are missing parents, missing teachers, missing treatment and care, missing protection, missing many things ,except for the devastating effects of this disease.
A whole generation of young people today has never known a world free of HIV/AIDS.It is a disease that has redefined their childhood, forcing them to grow up alone, too fast or, sadly, not at all.
Every minute of every day, a child dies because of AIDS.And every day, there are nearly 1,800 new HIV infections among children under 15.
For young people in the most affected countries where the life expectancy has plummeted from the
mid-60s to the early-30s turning 18 means reaching middle age.
Today, an estimated 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.But only a fraction of the children and parents who need help are getting it.
The size of the problem is staggering, but the world has been largely unresponsive.Less than 10 percent of pregnant women are offered services to prevent transmission to their infants.Less than 10 percent of children who have lost parents or who have been made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS get needed support or assistance.And less than 5 percent of children in need of treatment for HIV/AIDS receive it.
This campaign is meant to change that.
And it is meant to keep a promise the world’s own promise of progress toward the Millennium Development Goals not only the goal on AIDS, but in other areas where AIDS has left its indelible and destructive mark.
And that is why, today, we Unite for Children and Unite Against AIDS.
Children and young people are suffering.
They are suffering the greatest in sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease has the strongest grip.
But they are also suffering in Asia, in Central and Eastern Europe, in Latin America and the Caribbean, and beyond.
Today, UNICEF sent more than 15 million text messages to mobile phone customers in African and Asia to draw attention to these children, and to seek support for this new initiative.
The campaign is global, because the threat to children is global.
We will focus on four main goals:
- Reducing the percentage of young people living with HIV/AIDS by 25 percent.
- Covering 80 percent of women who need services to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
- Providing pediatric AIDS treatment to 80 percent of children in need.
- And reaching 80 percent of children in need of protection and support.
The needs are urgent, the goals are ambitious, and with our collective effort, they are also reachable.
Today, in every region, and in many countries, we are putting the spotlight on the millions of children whose lives have been devastated, and we unite in a common cause.
As we work towards an AIDS-free generation, as we unite for children unite against AIDS.
Thank you very much.
