Success Stories from Our Members in the field

The Struggle Against AIDS in South Africa, Catholic Medical Mission Board

A staggering 70 percent of people infected with HIV/AIDS - 28 out of 40 million worldwide - live in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2001 alone, 2.3 million people in the region died of AIDS-related causes.

Catholic Medical Mission Board's response to the pandemic is its "Choose to Care" initiative in partnership with Bristol-Meyers Squibb and the Southern African Bishops Conference: a five-year, $5 million commitment to build the capacity of organizations in southern Africa that care for people suffering from HIV/AIDS. Since February 2000, the New York-based group has helped 54 community-based organizations that focus on care of the dying, help for orphans and HIV/AIDS education.

In 2001, Choose to Care provided medical, psychosocial and educational support to 54,500 home-care patients and 860 orphans. The program now reaches 98 percent of South African Catholic dioceses with HIV/AIDS education or home-based care programs. CMMB helps those in need regardless of religion, race or politics.

Thanks to Choose to Care, 45 schools in eight of South Africa's nine provinces have integrated HIV/AIDS education into their curricula, a critical step in slowing the spread of the fatal disease and reducing the stigma surrounding it.

The Catholic Medical Mission Board is working hard to reduce mother-to-child transmission of AIDS by making the drug nevirapine available to expectant mothers. Preliminary results show that nevirapine reduces the rate of transmission by about 50 percent. Choose to Care also provides better nutrition to pregnant women, and improved health care before, during and after delivery. These practices, which reduce transmission of the disease, result in better overall health for both mother and child.

Americans know that we cannot ignore the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS, or infants at risk of contracting the disease. Time and again they support such activities as a way for a powerful nation to ease the suffering of those less fortunate and to help build goodwill around the globe.