RWANDA: Presidential promise to provide care for children

Rwandan president Paul Kagame hopes to provide antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to 80 percent of Rwandan children living with HIV/AIDS within the next five years.

Only five percent of the 20,000 HIV positive children in need of therapy are currently receiving it.

At the launch of a five-year global AIDS campaign focusing on children, organised by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Kagame said, "We all recognise that AIDS has a great impact on children - it makes them orphans when it takes away their parents, it gives them responsibilities that are beyond their capacity, and they are greatly stigmatised."

Kagame stressed the need for programmes and strategies that reduced mother-to-child transmission and sexual abuse, and to "protect children's rights through empowerment", the New Times reported.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

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