WCC NEWS - At interfaith gathering, WCC joins calls for a one-community response to HIV

An interfaith breakfast held in conjunction with the 78th session of the UN General Assembly brought into focus the urgent need for building partnerships for a one-community response to HIV. New York City, September 21 2023- The Wrold Council of Churches, UNAIDS and PEPFAR hosted the Communities of Faith Prayer Breakfast during the high level week of the UN General Assembly, gathering faith leaders and other health care leaders and practitioners to learn and pray together about the current state of AIDS among children and the rest of the population. Photo: Simon Chambers/ACT 22 September 2023 The World Council of Churches (WCC) was represented at the gathering, which drew Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Baháʼí, and Buddhist communities, along with civic leaders. Data presented in the breakfast shows that child AIDS deaths have decreased by 80% and new AIDS orphanhood has decreased by 75%. However, that progress is now under threat and needs remain urgent as 84,000 children still die each year of AIDS globally and 92% of those deaths are preventable. There are 10.3 million AIDS-orphaned children in Sub-Saharan Africa who need economic and social support.  "Accessibility to paediatric medicines is a big challenge for many children living with HIV in India,” said Fr Thomas Ninan, executive secretary of the Projects of the NCCI, Christian Service Agency, Nagpur, India. “Life skills education can do wonders for many positive children in India for a safe and secure future for them."  The WCC, through its Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy Programme and through the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, has mobilized faith communities to address the gaps in HIV among children. Vulnerable and affected children, as well as the ones born with HIV, experience serious challenges related to HIV stigma and discrimination and lack of political will. WCC promotes the responsibility of faith communities in taking care of the vulnerable and bringing justice.  WCC-promoted activities are one of the promising strategies identified in a compendium of African faith-based initiatives to respond to pediatric HIV.  "The new compendium of promising practices will help to reduce transmission of HIV, increase treatment access and adherence support among children and youth to end transmission, and reduce the inequalities that worsen outcomes for HIV-exposed infants and children living with HIV,” said Bishop Godson Lawson from Togo, a member of the WCC Commission on Health and Healing. "The faith-based organizations are committed to ensuring that all voices are represented in the fight to end AIDS in children and youth.” Photo gallery See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland