Bishop Dr. Elmar Fischer from the Diocese of Feldkirch signs the HAART for Children campaign
From a news website of Vorarlberg
Bregenz: Today, on World AIDS Day, Caritas international calls for an improvement of the situation of children Living or affected by HIV/AIDS with the launch of the “HAART for children” campaign.
Michael Zündel from the department for International cooperation in Caritas of the Diocese of Feldkirch, and a group of students from Feldkirch explained the facts and figures of the campaign to the governor of Vorarlberg, Herbert Sausgruber. It is hoped that 20.000 signatures will be collected in Vorarlberg, leading up to the International Aids Conference, that will take place in Vienna in July 2010.
In all parts of Vorarlberg today, a group of of 200 youth collected signatures endorsing the “HAART for children” campaign. During the 18th International AIDS Conference, the signatures will be handed over to the Austrian Foreign Minister and Health Minister. The Ministers will be asked to follow up on the requests that have been put forward by the campaign.
1,8 Million children in Africa – many of them orphans – are living with the virus, or already sick with AIDS. Most of them do not yet have access to the medicines they urgently need. For children below the age of 18 months, there is a lack of suitable HIV-tests to determine whether or not they have been infected by their HIV-positive mothers before birth, during birth, and through breastfeeding. The “HAART for children” campaign also asks for greater efforts to prevent such Mother-to-Child-Transmission and for an increase of support to AIDS orphans.
The governor of Vorarlberg thanked all the young people engaged in the campaign. The commitment of these youth shows that they are willing to assume responsibility for an important concern, and fight for the right of these children, he said.
