Childhood and AIDS: Rolling Back AIDS in Developing Countries

June 15, 2006

Who: Rima Salah, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director
Ester Guluma, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa
Peter McDermott, UNICEF Chief of HIV/AIDS, New York
Eric Mercier, UNICEF Regional Advisor for HIV/AIDS, West and Central Africa
Chewe Luo, UNICEF Paediatric HIV/AIDS Specialist, New York
Kerrel McKay, Youth representative and AIDS activist, Kingston

What: One-on-one interviews

When: 15 and 16 June, anytime between 1:00-2:30 pm

Where: Cité des sciences et de l’industrie de la Villette, Paris

Why: AIDS is shattering the lives of children worldwide. Today around 2.3 million children are living with HIV, and 540,000 children were infected in 2005 alone. The time has come for innovative solutions to combat the epidemic. The Childhood and AIDS: Rolling Back AIDS in Developing Countries conference in Paris, 15-16 June, will bring the private and public sectors together to stimulate thought and generate action to turn the tide.

The conference will address the global situation of childhood and AIDS, children’s access to care, the care of orphans and vulnerable children, community response and national answers to the pandemic’s devastating effect on children.

It is part of the global campaign Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS, launched on 25 October, 2005 by the UN and led by UNICEF. The campaign aims to address the particular needs of children in four key areas: preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, scaling up paediatric care for children infected with the virus, preventing new infections amongst teenagers and young people, and supporting children affected by HIV/AIDS.

The conference is being organized by partners from public, humanitarian and private sectors: the French Development Agency (AFD), the National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS), ESTHER, la Cité de la santé de la Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sidaction, SIDA-ENTREPRISES and UNICEF, with the support of the City of Paris.

Visit the conference website at http://www.colloque-enfance-sida.org

Note to broadcasters: Video footage of the conference, interviews with participants and youth activists, as well as b-roll from West Africa will be available free of charge from The Newsmarket at http://www.thenewsmarket.com.

For further information and interviews please contact:

Patrick McCormick, UNICEF Geneva, Tel. + 41 79 204 4473, pmccormick@unicef.org
Brigitte Helali, UNICEF West and Central Africa, Tel. +33 621 709 010, bhelali@unicef.org
Yasmine Hamdi, UNICEF France, Tel. +33 677 536 445, yhamdi@unicef.fr
Maud Saheb, UNICEF France, Tel. +33 144 397 770, msaheb@unicef.fr
Elizabeth Losleben, UNICEF NY, Tel. +1 212 326 7172, elosleben@unicef.org

Contact Information

Patrick McCormick

UNICEF Geneva

Contact via E-mail