Ukraine has one of Europe’s highest rates of HIV infection. According to unofficial data, more than one percent of the Ukrainian population is infected. Since 1987 12,500 Ukrainians have been killed by this disease. Over the past several years it has affected our children, with increasing numbers of infants diagnosed with HIV.
In view of this alarming situation, UNICEF and British Airways recently donated $560,000 collected from passengers under the program “Change for Good” to help treat HIV-infected children in Ukraine, UNICEF’s representative in Ukraine Jeremy Hartley told The Day. The project was launched in May 2007 and will last until 2010. Its main objective is to secure the practical realization of the rights of HIV-infected children by placing them in foster family surroundings.
The need for this project is rooted in some gruesome statistics: in a 10-year period from 1995 to 2005 the number of HIV-infected children increased almost 210 timest. Some 500 HIV-positive children under 14 are currently institutionalized. The UNICEF project is aimed at helping the Ukrainian government to improve mechanisms designed to deinstitutionalize HIV-infected children with the help of foster families and family-type children’s homes, along with transparent adoption and training procedures geared to helping troubled families.
In the past 13 years Change for Good has collected over 23 million, mostly in small change provided by passengers leaving their flights in more than 50 countries.
Natalia Martynenko, British Airways commercial manager in Ukraine, says that flight attendants on all BA flights tell passengers about this program. “Our passengers can find envelopes with contribution forms in the pockets of their seats; they can also receive the forms from the crew. In some countries there are collection boxes in British Airways booking offices. This lets us get ground service personnel involved. Every month Change for Good collects some ?140,000. In 2006 alone the program helped improve the living conditions for over 20,000 children around the world.” Martynenko added that British Airways believes in social responsibility, so the company staff wants to urge big businesses to support similar anti- AIDS projects.
All the money collected so far will be channeled into treatment programs for sick children in four regions in Ukraine: Kyiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa. HIV-infection status reports from these oblasts have raised the alarm.
