IRIN PlusNews HIV/AIDS News and information service | Horn of Africa | ETHIOPIA: UNICEF receives Sweden's donation for AIDS orphans | Children | News Items
Tuesday 28 February 2006
Home About PlusNews Country Profiles News Briefs Special Reports Subscribe Archive IRINnews
 

Regions

Africa
East Africa
Great Lakes
Horn of Africa
Southern Africa
West Africa
Weekly
RSSyndication
RSS - News Briefs

Features

PlusNews E-mail Subscription
 

ETHIOPIA: UNICEF receives Sweden's donation for AIDS orphans


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]


NAIROBI, 12 September (PLUSNEWS) - Sweden has donated nearly US $5 million to the UN children's agency (UNICEF) to strengthen the organisation's capacity to deal with the growing number of AIDS orphans in Ethiopia.

UNICEF and its partners in the Orphans and Vulnerable Children National Task Force had asked for $11 million to implement the first phase of Ethiopia's National Plan of Action for children who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. The programme will address the needs of 56,000 orphans initially, the agency said in a statement issued on Friday.

"Despite our modest initial goals, responses from donors towards the plan of action have been poor," said Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF's representative in Ethiopia. "This Swedish contribution is the first major contribution we have received since the plan was announced last December.

"In Ethiopia, this poor showing from the donor community has meant that our response to HIV/AIDS, particularly with regard to orphans, remains at very rudimentary levels," he added.

Assistance from the Norwegian and Austrian governments over the past three years enabled UNICEF to establish national youth networks and more than 10,000 anti-AIDS clubs across Ethiopia, he said.

The $4.96 million Swedish donation would allow UNICEF to strengthen the anti-AIDS clubs and offer counselling services, testing and educational support to young people.

The contribution will fund projects in Afar, Oromia, Somali and Tigray regions over the next three years.

The number of children orphaned by AIDS in Ethiopia is expected to increase to 2.5 million by 2014, according to Ljungqvist. "We are faced with hard decisions, juggling precious resources between competing needs. However, we have no choice but to act now if we are to save a generation of children and adolescents from being lost."

An estimated 1.5 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, and that number is projected to reach 2.4 million by 2015. UNICEF emphasised the importance of working with young people, who could learn to modify their behaviour more easily than adults.

[ENDS]




 
Recent ETHIOPIA Reports
Nearly half of the children orphaned by HIV/AIDS,  25/Oct/05
Expanded health coverage plan launched,  24/May/05
Serious challenges facing HIV/AIDS fight - US report,  15/Apr/05
Nationwide HIV/AIDS hotline launched,  14/Mar/05
New strategy launched to combat HIV/AIDS,  24/Jan/05
Links
· AIDS Media Center
· The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria
· International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS
· AEGIS
· International HIV/AIDS Alliance


PlusNews does not take responsibility for info in links supplied.


[Back] [Home Page]

Click here to send any feedback, comments or questions you have about PlusNews Website or if you prefer you can send an Email to Webmaster

Copyright © IRIN 2006
The material contained on www.PlusNews.org comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
All PlusNews material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.