Annan kicks off international AIDS orphan initiative

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has launched a global campaign to combat the rising threat of the pandemic against children, during which he lamented the lack of basic HIV/AIDS information. Annan told delegates at the agency's headquarters in New York earlier this week that children and youth made up half of all new HIV infections worldwide, often because of a lack of simple and fundamental safety information. The UN chief commented that "nearly 25 years into the pandemic, help is reaching less than 10 percent of the children affected by HIV/AIDS, leaving too many children to grow up alone, grow up too fast or not grow up at all". Annan stressed that the international community had to translate commitments into concrete action, strengthen partnerships, mobilise funding, and unleash all the energy and imagination needed to communicate with children and young people in language that worked for them.