How has AIDS affected World Vision programs?
Rising child mortality rates and falling life expectancies indicate that much of the development progress made in recent decades is being lost. For example, in hardest-hit areas, an emerging middle class has been pushed below the poverty line by loss of income and medical bills. Many of the poorest families never see a medical bill; few have seen a doctor, and even fewer can afford AIDS medications (anti-retrovirals; also referred to as ARVs). As a generation of parents is lost to AIDS, grandparents become the guardians often of 10 or more children. If grandparents are gone, older siblings, some of whom are not even in their teens, raise families. These children often must quit school to earn a living. AIDS creates an overwhelming need for new services, including prevention education, care for people living with HIV or AIDS and support for surviving children and families. Because these and other factors contribute to its spread, AIDS is addressed in the context of poverty, unemployment
