CARE Promotes Empowering People to Fight AIDS NEW YORK, United States (November 23, 2005) - As World AIDS Day approaches, CARE calls upon governments and civil society groups to ensure that the people most affected by AIDS obtain the support they need and play a leading role in fighting the pandemic. In communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, CARE works to enhance prevention and treatment efforts by improving people’s access to food, income and power structures, while strengthening health systems. "People affected by HIV and AIDS should be central players in shaping policies and services that meet their needs and holding to account those responsible for designing and implementing those policies and services," said Madhu Deshmukh, AIDS Director, CARE USA. "HIV/AIDS is more than a health issue, and addressing it holistically means empowering communities." Examples of CARE’s efforts include strengthening networks of people living with HIV and AIDS in Ethiopia to demand more equitable access to anti-retroviral therapy. In Tanzania, where CARE aims to ensure that all women of reproductive age have access to quality health services, CARE is working with "maternal mortality and morbidity groups," which include people living with HIV and AIDS, to advocate for common goals for strengthening health systems. In Zambia, CARE is working to establish minimum standards for home-based care. To ensure that people living with HIV and AIDS are properly supported, CARE calls for:
December 1 will be the 18th World AIDS Day. Nearly five million people were infected with HIV in 2005, while already tens of millions of people struggle daily to cope with the impact of the disease, particularly women and children. Most of the more than 40 million people living with HIV are in developing countries, where only 12 percent of people needing anti-retroviral drugs receive them.
CARE is displaying panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt at its U.S. headquarters, 151 Ellis St., Atlanta, GA, 30303. Each panel is dedicated in memory of someone connected to a CARE employee. On Dec. 1, CARE will host a candle-lighting ceremony from 9-10:30 a.m. at which the executive director of AID Atlanta, Kim Anderson, and an HIV-positive representative of the group will speak. Media are invited to attend.
Media Contacts:
New York: Lynn Heinisch, CARE, heinisch@care.org, (212) 686-3110
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