Today is World AIDS Day, and around the world people will be devoting time to highlighting this global problem. In SubSaharan Africa, 22 million people are said to be living with HIV / AIDS - that's two thirds of the people infected worldwide. But the effects of HIV / AIDS are far reaching. You don't have to be infected by the virus to be fundamentally affected by it.
One of the greatest problems arising from the HIV / AIDS pandemic is the children who are left orphaned by the virus. Even if the virus is not transmitted from mother to child, young children are being orphaned by the disease when their parents die of AIDS and related illnesses. Generations of youngsters find themselves in charge of their siblings when they are barely teenagers themselves, having to drop out of school to try and support their younger brothers and sisters. There are estimated to be 11.4 million children in Africa orphaned by HIV / AIDS.
If you receive our emails (and you can sign up for our mailing list here), you will have read of some of the many remarkable women who have opened their homes to these AIDS orphans. They're providing them with a safe place to sleep, a meal and in some small way, a sense of family. They're stepping into the (ever increasing) gap left by HIV / AIDS.
Breadline Africa supports a number of organisations who work with children affected by HIV / AIDS, who provide education and support, and who work with communities affected by the virus. You can read more about these projects here.
A day to bring attention to a problem helps with raising awareness. With our donors' generous support, we are able to assist a number of projects who work in this vital area each day.
Ribbon image by Jonathan Sull, source: Flickr (Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License)
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