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Ribbon for World AIDS Day, Port Vila, Vanuatu. Photo: Andrew Read/OxfamAUS
HIV and AIDS
Do we need to worry about AIDS any more? In Australia, the annual number of new HIV diagnoses has decreased. But AIDS hasn’t gone away. In fact, the spread of AIDS has become a global health disaster.
Every day, more than 8,500 people around the world die of AIDS – the equivalent of 28 jumbo jets crashing. And too many of the 40 million people infected with HIV know only hardship in their lives.
Why? Because the burden of HIV and AIDS – the cost of medical treatment, funerals for family members, and caring for children orphaned by it – throws households and communities into crushing poverty.
Oxfam Australia works directly with people affected by HIV and AIDS around the world, helping them to regain a sense of hope. In South Africa, for instance, we train and support home-based carers – local volunteers who, with Oxfam supplies, support the ill, elderly and orphaned.
Oxfam lobbies for change too, pressing governments and other donors to provide the $10 billion a year needed for universal HIV and AIDS prevention work, treatment and care.
Stories from the field
- A place to belong
- A community support group in Mozambique is helping people living with HIV gain a renewed sense of hope and belonging.
- Stitching up HIV and AIDS
- Exquisite hand-embroidered textiles are brightening the lives of hundreds of HIV-affected women in South Africa.
- A beacon of hope
- Zimbabwe’s young people are being decimated by HIV and AIDS. We take a look at a ground-breaking approach which is tackling HIV and gender equality.
- Small steps (552kb MP3)
- Oxfam's Alfred Kiva talks about our HIV and AIDS work in the Solomon Islands.
How you can help
Help us continue this work by making a donation: