For the first time ever the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has launched an outdoor advertising campaign highlighting the plight of children with HIV/AIDS.
The campaign, a joint effort of the UNICEF and Clear Channel Outdoor, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, aims to raise awareness and funds to fight the impact of HIV/AIDS on children.
It is the intention of the global outdoor advertising venture to focus attention on the hundreds of millions of children who are orphaned or left vulnerable because of HIV/AIDS every year, while also raising the funds to help them.
Ann Veneman, executive Director of UNICEF, said at the campaign's launch in New York, that the children are watching their hopes and dreams crumble, as parents, teachers, caregivers and role models die from AIDS.
UNICEF estimates that as many as fifteen million children have already lost parents to the disease, yet only 10 per cent get public support or aid.
Although each year, some 600,000 children under the age of 15 are infected with HIV/AIDS, and of those, 500,000 will die as a result, only 5 per cent of HIV-positive children have access to treatment, and only 10 per cent of pregnant women have access to services that can prevent transmission to their children.