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Summary: The Association François-Xavier Bagnoud launches first on-line Global Civil Society Petition for AIDS Orphans.
The Association François-Xavier Bagnoud launches its first on-line Global Civil Society Petition for AIDS Orphans. It is hoped that, through the collection of signatures demonstrating support for the rights of AIDS Orphans, AFXB can encourage Governments and Businesses to act and that this petition will support the implementation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, the site states the following. In addition to all the suffering and deaths it causes, AIDS means countless millions of orphans in the world. Children with AIDS are at the heart of our activities. We care for them in our François-Xavier Bagnoud Houses; we help their families through our income-generating projects; we prevent and treat AIDS through our programs of information, prevention, screening, research and training. Today, we are mobilizing our resources against an earth-shaking catastrophe: according to estimates, there will be 100 million AIDS orphans in the world just a few years hence. Children who are abandonned, sometimes infected at birth, sometimes in good health, are left to fend for themselves or die because their families have been wiped out by the epidemic and are no longer there to take care of them. Acting before the worst happens: by informing public opinion; by alerting governments, the media, the business world and governmental and non-governmental organizations to the extent of the scourge; by creating structures that respond to the basic needs of these children - structures that do not have to be orphanages, but which serve as active support for the host families and the communities affected; by applying their rights, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Because they do not have the means to have their voices heard, let us come together to be the spokespeople for these children. In a universal movement of solidarity, let us - with our signatures - piece together a safety net, knot by knot.