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TechnoratiAccording to the new 2007 UNAIDS report, there are about 3 million children infected with HIV. When I say children I mean under the age of 15. Last year 330,000 children died and they died because they don’t have access to those anti retro-viral drugs which can treat them. And the reason why they don’t have them is simple, because they are too poor. They live in poverty and that is the reason they don’t have that access.
Now there is another issue related to children – the problem of orphans. We have 12 million children who have lost at least one of their parents due to AIDS, 90 percent of those are African kids. What you need to be hearing me say is the number of children infected each year is 90 percent African, the number of children who died last year (the 330,000) is 90 percent African, and the number of orphans is 90 percent African children. That is why when you talk with Compassion about our AIDS initiative we will be talking about Africa because that is where the firestorm is the fiercest.
We are working outside of Africa; we are working in Honduras, India, and Thailand, but the vast majority of our effort is in African countries.
CP: In your opinion, why are people unaware of the massive number of children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS?
Todd: Well, I hate to be blunt about it but people just don’t care that much about children. Children just don’t seem to get on the agenda that often. Children just don’t have lobbyist. Every other group of people has their political lobbyists, every other group of people seems to have their activist – people who go out and champion their cause. Children don’t have that; they are not organize for that. They have very few who will be their champion, who will go out and speak on their behalf.
That is exactly what Compassion is all about. We are advocates for children. We want to speak out on behalf of them. The Scripture says to speak out for those who don’t have a voice. We want to represent their interest. That is a big part of why people don’t know.
What we like to remind people is all these big and important people – the ambassadors, the leaders and even the president – they all have something in common – they’re all former children. Not only that, but the most influential events in their lives which shape who they are happened in their childhood.
So if we want to go reach the big important people and have influence with them we believe that we need to reach them earlier - to go to those big and important people when they are five years old, because for better or for worse, those childhood experiences are either going to rob them of their potential and lead them to be the type of leader who is corrupt, or to be leaders that are godly men and women, who have integrity who have servant-leader heart, who’s values come from their relationship with God through Christ.
That is what we are trying to do – to reach them early, develop those big and important people and see them enter into a relationship with Christ and see them have a secure childhood protected from abuse.
There’s another thing. In terms of a mission perspective, most people come to know Christ during their childhood and youth. It is like 80 percent come to know the Lord during that period in life, yet from a mission perspective – we spend 85 percent of our mission money on adults oriented outreaches. There is just a disconnect. Are we seeing the right people for whatever we are trying to do? If we are trying to prevent AIDS? Are we looking at the children, because that is where the greatest hope lies in trying to protect the children and raise an AIDS-free generation. Continue »
