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Faith-based organizations are at the heart of a special mission: issuing a call to action—to ensure that infants, children and adolescents around the world have access to HIV prevention, testing and treatment.

A disturbing projection regarding the number of children living with HIV was released today by UNAIDS. In 2016 there were 2.1 million children living with HIV globally, compared with a previous estimate of 1.8 million in 2015.

A conference discussing how to overcome hunger, and sustain justice and peace in the Horn of Africa, ended in Nairobi, Kenya on 29 June with faith leaders and partner organizations calling for urgent action to tackle famine, a frequent experience in the region.

Countries in the Horn of Africa afflicted by droughts and war are facing famine which visits the region regularly leaving the United Nations and faith-based organizations battling to contain the current crisis.

Marching through the streets of Nairobi on the Day of the African Child 2017, religious leaders from a range of faith communities in Kenya spoke up publicly for the rights of children and adolescents living with HIV, accompanied by hundreds of people, among them school children from six Nairobi-based schools, as well as dozens of youth volunteers.

More than 600 people are scheduled to gather in Nairobi, Kenya on 16 June, the Day of the African Child, with the goal of speaking out for ending the AIDS epidemic among children, adolescents and young women by 2020.

Worsening global inequality is borne out as more people face famine now than any other time in modern history. Fr Nithiya Sagayam, national coordinator of the Association of Franciscan Families of India, is gravely concerned that the global response to extreme poverty is too low in almost every country while, he says, “corporations continue to grow richer and richer.”

“She is HIV positive too. No need to inherit her late husband’s title deed. She will die soon and leave it anyway.”

These man’s thoughts during his brother’s funeral were used by Jane Ng’ang’a, national coordinator, International Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV (INERELA+) Kenya Chapter, to push the debate on property and inheritance rights linked to HIV. The discussion was held during the 61st Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), on 16 March, at the headquarters of UNAIDS, in New York.

More than 120 religious and spiritual leaders, health workers and young people met on 7-8 February to focus on strengthening the fight against stigma in the HIV response in Kenya. They were joined by representatives from the Kenyan government, civil society organizations, networks of people living with HIV, and development partners for an event in Nairobi. The meeting, “Faith on the Fast Track: Eliminating Stigma and Discrimination Through Love and Dialogue” aimed to assess the impact of the Framework for Dialogue methodology which has been implemented in several countries since 2013.

The World Council of Churches - Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance applauds the first licensing agreement related to tuberculosis, announced on 25 January by the Medicines Patent Pool and Johns Hopkins University. The agreement will facilitate the clinical development of sutezolid, a tuberculosis drug candidate. The antibiotic sutezolid, in combination with other drugs, could be used to more effectively treat drug-sensitive and drug-resistant tuberculosis.

“I have been tested for HIV,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, who received his test while traveling in Oslo, Norway, as a demonstration of his support for the WCC campaign “Leading by Example: Religious Leaders and HIV Testing,” launched at events observing World AIDS Day - 1 December - at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland.

Religious leaders are getting tested for HIV in hopes of inspiring others across the world to seek testing, too. Increasing the number of people receiving HIV testing is vitally important in the effort to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

Peasant seed systems, which have fed most of the world’s population for centuries, are endangered by the imposition of intellectual property rights and patents, says a church-backed campaign.

"If there ever was a time to change words into action, it is today", said U.S. ambassador-at-large Deborah L. Birx, M.D., coordinator of the United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, at an interfaith prayer breakfast held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 20 September.

“Dignity, Freedom, and Grace: Christian Perspectives on HIV, AIDS and Human Rights,” a book published earlier this year by the WCC, will be among reports discussed at a 20 September event with the theme “Keeping the Faith in Development: Gender, Religions & Heath.”

Being open about living with HIV can still be daunting and damaging, even some 30 years into the response to the virus. The pernicious stigma that cleaves to testing positive, remains one of the main barriers to a truly effective response. While billions of dollars have been spent over the last few decades to tackle HIV and AIDS scientifically and medically, with huge gains in prevention and treatment, social and cultural barriers still remain in what is the greatest epidemic in modern history.

To help the world’s children become HIV-free, faith groups must help bring UN goals to life through strong advocacy, rapid action and unprecedented collaboration, say experts. Children must be helped onto a “Super Fast Track” to end AIDS or they will die at what Dr Stuart Kean describes as a “shocking” rate.

The 21st International AIDS Conference, which concluded July 22, had its normal dose of science speak, with seminars and workshops ranging from new vaccine trials to the testing of a vaginal ring that appears to dramatically lower the risk of HIV infection in women.

Prince Harry, Elton John, Charlize Theron, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Bill Gates – royalty, celebrities, religious leaders and philanthropists joined scientists, politicians, health workers, and activists – all of whom include people of faith – at the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban. At a time when “AIDS fatigue” deepens, affecting funding, awareness and capacity to respond, the stars help to put a media spotlight on the many challenges and injustices that remain.

Thirty-five years into the response to HIV and AIDS, it remains a disease that not only thrives on, but exploits the lines of exclusion and inequality in society. In the Philippines, where there has been an alarming increase in people testing positive for HIV, the country’s National Council of Churches recognized that more than words were needed. While dialogue and debate were important, they needed to translate into action, given the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor in Filipino society, and a faith-based and societal milieu still dominated by a sex-negative theology.