UN Report Highlights Stigma Faced by China's HIV/AIDS Population 

AIDS Ribbon
Many people wear red ribbons on December 1st in recognition of World AIDS Day.

December 1, 2009: A UNAIDS survey released on November 27th points to widespread discrimination in China toward people infected with HIV/AIDS. According to Reuters, the report found that even medical staff shy away from touching China's estimated 97,000 to 112,000 HIV/AIDS patients. More than 40 percent of survey respondents reported facing discrimination due to their HIV status.

Ignorance about HIV/AIDS and how it is spread is prevalent in China, even among a sophisticated urban populace. China's Deputy Health Minister Huang Jeifu recently stated that the government would step up efforts to combat HIV/AIDS stigma. Huang said that the task of overcoming popular ignorance about the disease is challenging.

Stigma toward people with AIDS deeply affects children, even those without the disease themselves. According to the UNAIDS report, some children whose parents have AIDS have been forced to leave school.

SOS Children's Villages Helps AIDS Orphans in China and Around the World

Discrimination against children whose family members have AIDS can have dire consequences for them. But being shunned by their communities is only one part of a very sad picture for these boys and girls. Millions of children have been orphaned or abandoned by parents who can no longer care for them due to illness, poverty, or death.

SOS Children's Villages, a sixty-year-old charity that provides loving homes to orphaned and abandoned children in 132 countries, makes special efforts to give shelter to children in countries hit hard by HIV/AIDS.

Educating Local Families about AIDS Prevention

SOS Children's Villages not only offers HIV/AIDS-affected children warm homes, medical care, and an education. SOS also provides HIV/AIDS prevention counseling to vulnerable families living near its Villages. Even SOS youths themselves contribute to HIV/AIDS education. In parts of Africa, for instance, SOS teens sometimes create troupes to travel and pass along songs that carry educational messages about how to prevent HIV/AIDS.

Being HIV-positive, living with AIDS, or just having a parent who has the disease can bring terrible social isolation and economic deprivation to an innocent child. Help such a child find love, acceptance, and hope at an SOS Children's Village. Consider sponsoring an SOS child today.