Press Release

OFID extends US$3.5 million to scale up prevention of mother/child transmission of HIV/AIDS in Sub-saharan Africa

62/2006 June 13, 2006, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) today approved a grant of US$3,500,000 to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The world’s two billion children and adolescents are at the centre of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Increasingly, the face of HIV/AIDS is becoming young and female. This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of HIV/AIDS on children is staggering; eight out of ten children who have lost parents to AIDS are from sub-Saharan Africa. To date, 14 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS and that number is expected to exceed 25 million by 2010.

In line of the above, a joint UNICEF/OPEC Fund project has been formulated with the objective of contributing to the elimination of HIV/AIDS in infants and young children. The two areas of focus for this project will be:

• Scale-up prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV with Care and Support for Mothers (PMTCT Plus);

• HIV Paediatric Treatment, Care, and Support.

The project will cover 6 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In these countries, UNICEF will use project funding to work with governments and local partners to implement and scale up PMTCT Plus and paediatric care, support and treatment interventions.