Introduction to Caritas campaign

Participation in the Caritas letter-writing campaign

The Edmund Rice Network has a presence in over thirty countries where members of the network can be found working with and for the more underprivileged of God’s people.

In its work of advocacy ERI would hope to both draw on the experience of the Edmund Rice Networkand to enlist the support of its members, including students in the Edmund Rice Network of schools, in its efforts to help bring about a more just and sustainable world, .

ERI  seeks to mobilise the resources of the Edmund Rice network in a global advocacy campaign in which we hope to involve as many as possible of the more than quarter of a million students in Edmund Rice schools around the world in support of the Caritas/EAA letter-writing campaign to governments and pharmaceutical companies, to improve access to medicines for children with HIV.

Elsewhere on this website are some guidelines for involving students in advocacy as we are inviting all schools to encourage students to take part in the campaign in some way. You may want to involve the whole school, a particular year level or just one class.

You will need to set aside two hours of class time to enable the students to learn about HIV and AIDS and how their letter might help children with HIV, and then to actually write their letters.

Letters should be addressed to the health ministries of the countries where HIV/AIDS is a problem. The campaign to write letters to pharmaceutical companies is temporarily suspended as the patents for the medication have now been transferred to generic pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and there will need to be a revision of the message to be addressed to these companies.

Letter-writers are urged to take into account some of the recommendations made by the Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS , including World Vision International , the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation and others. In particular, the civil society organisations working on behalf of children and adolescents and their families urged UN country delegations to ensure that the 2016 High-Level Meetings’ Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS covers the following points:
1.Commit to achieve and sustain by 2020 elimination of mother-to-child transmission, with under 40,000 new HIV infections among children;
2.Commit to have by 2020 at least 2 million children living with HIV on treatment and virally suppressed
3.Commit to ensuring 75% of children, adolescents and their parents living with HIV and affected by HIV receive comprehensive care and support – including comprhensive social protection and child protection;
4.Commit to strengthening the capacity of families, the community-level child care workforce, and the social welfare workforce, so that together they can meet the developmental needs of children living with HIV and affected by HIV, from pregnancy to early childhood, and into adolescence.
5.Commit to a target that 90% of children living with HIV and affected by HIV are free from stigma and discrimination due to their HIV status and/or that of their caregivers.

Sample copies of letters should also be sent to me and I will be forward them to Caritas

Thank you for your support.

Brian Bond cfc

Executive Director
Edmund Rice International
37-39 rue de Vermont
PO Box 104
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
T +41 22 7794011 (W)
email: bpbond@edmundrice.org
www.edmundriceinternational.org

 

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