International AIDS Day

Today is International AIDS Day. I will be wearing my red ribbon to help raise awareness of this terrible disease. In the year 2000 all the EU countries signed up to the Millenium Development Goals. Fighting HIV/AIDS is a real test of their commitment.

5 million children have been orphaned by AIDS. Many pregnant women are denied the drugs to prevent them passing on the virus to their unborn children.

A few years ago I did a report in the Parliament on this issue and worked closely with Medicines Sans Frontiers. I learned a lot about their fantastic work but also about the scale of the problem. Then in 2002 I visited Kwazulu Natal in South Africa. There I saw it at first hand. We had a meeting with the King of the Zulus who had made fighting AIDS his top priority because they were burying a child in the village every week and he just couldn’t stand it any more. But I also went to watch a group of young people performing a play for schools which was really inspiring. It carried a very strong message about the importance of using condoms.

Wearing a ribbon isn’t much but it is important. If nothing else it reminds people who make promises that we expect them to keep them.