The Church is one of the biggest care providers for those who have HIV and AIDS around the world. As AIDS affects every aspect of a person’s life, the Church takes a holistic approach to the disease, focusing on the physical, intellectual and spiritual needs of the person. Up to 33 million people were living ...
“Greater leadership on HIV is still needed as we mark the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Despite some progress, HIV is a major obstacle to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The pandemic causes incalculable human suffering. It threatens the social and economic infrastructure of the human family. More needs to be done. “Children will ...
According to the UNAIDS Epidemic Update, about 290,000 children under the age of 15 died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2007. Many of these children were poorly diagnosed or received no - or inadequate - treatment.
“[Stigma] is the single most important obstacle in the treatment and care of HIV/AIDS patients, since the very beginning … Seeing us touch, clean and treat the patient takes away fear from the family members … “ – Fr. Tomy of Bel Air Sanatorium and Hospital in Panchagani, India Working to shatter the myths and ...
When Caritas Cambodia found Kim Haeng in a shack in Siam Reap she was living more like an animal than a person. The 20 year-old was skeletal unwashed, eating food from the floor, and unable to speak. Her parents died when she was five and a relative sold her to a brothel. She was a ...
When Natalya, a 28-year-old woman from Ukraine, learned she was HIV-positive, she said her father threw her out of the house. “He told me to go live with my drug addict boyfriend,” she said. “My church told me I was a bad person. It was terrible. I didn’t know where to go.” She was just ...
In 1991, Angelo went to a Rome hospital to donate blood. This was how he found out he was HIV positive. “I cried in desperation,” he said. “But after a while something was unleashed in me that told me to have courage and to fight for something that was worth fighting for.” He now lives ...
The Millennium Development Goals form a plan agreed by world leaders to help millions of people out of poverty by 2015. Caritas is a supporter of Stand Up, a global mobilisation to end poverty and inequality and for the MDGs. This year, we are asking people to Stand Up and Take Action on October 17-19, to ensure ...
The estimated number of people living with HIV in Vietnam more than doubled from 120,000 in the year 2000 to 260,000 in 2005 and had reached some 300,000 at the end of 2007.
Caritas Internationalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga says religious leaders must be at the forefront of responding to HIV and AIDS. In a statement to mark World AIDS Day, the Caritas President says that religious leaders can do this by helping to spread accurate information and promoting responsible behaviour to halt the spread of the ...