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Opening Remarks By The Principal Secretary, |
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"The impact of AIDS is no less destructive than war itself, and by some measures, far worse." -U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan "At the moment, education and communication are the only weapons we have against HIV/AIDS." - The late Jonathan Mann, former Executive Director, World Health Organization/ Global Programme on AIDS 1. The Situation of HIV/AIDS: 1.1 In 2002, the world has woken up to the scale of the HIV epidemic. The HIV epidemic has created a development crisis. It not only threatens to make the achievement of international development targets an impossibility; it is turning progress backwards by decades. In sub-Saharan Africa, the most basic measure of progress, average life expectancy, rose from 44 years in the early 1950s to 59 years by the late 1980s. Over the coming decades, the impact of AIDS will return life expectancy to under 45 years. 1. 2 AIDS is not like other diseases where infants or the elderly are hardest hit. It affects infants, but because HIV is sexually transmitted, it has its largest impact on young adults. They hold in their hands the nation’s hopes for the future. The impact of AIDS is therefore felt across every area of social and economic development: · teachers are lost faster than they can be trained, · health professionals, already burdened with the demands of AIDS care, themselves succumb to illness, and · agriculture and industry lose production. 1.3 But we see the impact most clearly with our children. Almost 3.2 million children under 15 have died from AIDS since the beginning of the pandemic -- and because of HIV infection and the loss of family care, child mortality is likely to double in the worst affected countries by 2010. The impact of the epidemic on families affects children's physical, mental and social health and development. More than 11 million children have already been orphaned by AIDS -- and the number of orphans is expected to rise to over 40 million by 2010, more than 90 per cent of whom will be here in sub-Saharan Africa. 2. Role of Media: 2.1 The global fight against AIDS is almost twenty years old, but it has taken nearly all of those twenty years to learn one basic fact: an effective response against AIDS requires a sustained, society-wide response in every quarter of the globe. It requires the energy of grass-roots social action to be matched with effective leadership from every level. Partial efforts do not work against this pandemic. There is now clear recognition on the world stage of the cumulative impact of HIV and of the corresponding need for a total response. Fortunately, our twenty years of experience of the epidemic have demonstrated the components of an effective response: strong leadership, unified planning throughout sectors, overcoming stigma and creating openness, addressing social vulnerability, linking prevention and care, targeting those most vulnerable to infection, focussing on young people, and fostering community involvement in the response. It took the world twenty years to accept these lessons on AIDS because the easy option was always to pretend that AIDS was someone else's problem. 2.2 The only way this force of inertia has been counteracted is through the creation of more powerful forces of communication and social action which have been ceaseless in demanding an effective response to AIDS. This model of social action and media as the platform for responding to AIDS has been at the core of all effective responses to AIDS, while its specific forms have been adapted to many different communities and populations throughout the world. The social action model has meant that people living with and affected by AIDS have not only been given voice, but have also been recognized as the drivers of the response to the epidemic. Herein lies one of the main differences between AIDS and other societal problems. Because HIV is primarily transmitted sexually, because it is associated with powerful stigma because it is a lifetime sentence, HIV infection is an issue of identity. But as we in communications know, if we don't talk about, we cannot address it. 2.3 While mass media- such as radio, TV, print- can unintentionally promote stigma; they can also serve as powerful tools to help reduce it. Given our potential to shape attitudes, values and perceptions of large numbers of people, communicators have a responsibility to create clear messages about HIV/AIDS, to report accurately, and to do so in a sensitive, non-stigmatizing manner. Media, openly discussing the issues related to this disease, can play a powerful role in destroying the stigma and breaking the silence. We have a duty to play this role. 3. Message of Hope: 3.1 Some have said that information is the only vaccine against AIDS. We can provide this information in a positive way that motivates people to action. 3.3 It should reverberate from one end of the African continent to the other, and it is this: "Defeating HIV is possible". This disease is 100% preventable with the right information and action. Together we can halt the epidemic, and together we can assure treatment and support for those it has touched. 3.4 Make no mistake - because of this disease, and the conspiracy of silence that has so long surrounded it, children are suffering and dying in numbers that no earlier generation could have imagined possible. 4.3 million children under 15 have already died. 600,000 infants are infected annually. More than 13 million have been orphaned, a number which will likely reach 40 million in the coming years. And the vast, vast majority of these children are African children. For the sake of these children - our children - we must stop this pandemic now. The naysayers believe this can't happen - at least not any time soon. The challenges, they say, are too daunting. This is not true. 3.5 We have the knowledge and tools necessary to slow this terrible disease. We will learn to incorporate them fully into our work during this important workshop. We can and must combat the negative messages that "AIDS kills." People need positive messages. People need information to combat the harmful myths that increase the spread of this disease. People must know you can live with HIV, and that there are ways to protect themselves from infection and illness. We are not powerless, and there is hope. We can bring this message to our readers and listeners. 3.6 Let me conclude by reminding us all that our success in combating HIV/AIDS will be measured in the lives of our children. Are young people getting the information and support they need to protect themselves? Are girls being empowered to take charge of their lives? Are infants safe from infection? And are children orphaned by AIDS being raised in loving, supportive environments? These are the questions we need to address and these are the measures of the effectiveness of leadership and of our partnership. But if we act together and boldly there is no choice, we will succeed. But we must act, using the knowledge and tools we have in hand. For the greatest results in slowing this disease will only come from working together -- with governments, businesses, universities, NGOs, religious organizations, communities, families, grassroots groups, the media, young people. Our collective task is clear. We must do more, we must do it better, and we must do it now. Key messages in this text are excerpted from addresses by UNAIDS and member agencies' executives. |
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