UNITED NATIONS, Oct 25: Expressing extreme concern over the plight of children affected by the devastating earthquake in Pakistan, Executive Director of UN Childerns fund (Unicef) Anne Veneman said on Monday that the Fund was also working to identify children and to ensure that they did not fall victim to trafficking.
Speaking at a press conference on Unicef’s global campaign “Unite for Children, Unite against Aids,” Ms Veneman observed thousands of children in the earthquake impacted areas were orphaned and many needed help to find homes.
Ms Veneman said that immediately after the disaster, the agency had begun providing tents, tarpaulins, blankets and other materials and the Fund will continue to assess the plight of the children in Pakistan.
Speaking about the Unicef’s campaign she noted that the generation of children now growing up was the first to have known a world without Aids. They were missing parents, teachers and many things, except for the devastating effects of the disease.
The campaign was to be officially launched in New York on Tuesday, and in other locations worldwide.
Every minute of every day, a child died because of Aids, and every day, nearly 1,800 children under the age of 15 years were infected with HIV, Ms Veneman said. In some countries where HIV/Aids was most prevalent, life expectancy had plummeted from the mid-60s to the low 30s, so that turning 18 could mean reaching “middle age.” They should follow the lead of Ireland, which announced on Tuesday morning that it would earmark 20 per cent of its HIV/Aids contributions for efforts targeted at children. Reversing the spread of HIV/Aids, which was necessary for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, required focusing on children.
Peter McDermott, chief of Unicef’s HIV/Aids section, said that the disease was a global problem whose presence had historically been denied in the Middle East because of a contention that the region had no marginal groups. The campaign would try to break down stigmas and discrimination surrounding HIV/Aids, and two countries, Djibouti and Iran, were taking the lead in combating the pandemic. Following the holy month of Ramadan, the campaign was to be launched at an Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco, indicating that children and HIV/Aids were on the Islamic agenda.
