World AIDS Day Observed in Bangladesh

The Hunger Project, and the coalition it catalyzed - the Girl Child Forum - was a key player in this year's observance of World AIDS Day across the country of Bangladesh.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said, "This year's World AIDS Day is an occasion to recognize the burden that women and girls bear in the age of HIV/AIDS, but equally, to celebrate their achievements in the fight against the epidemic."

As our president Joan Holmes stated when we launched our HIV/AIDS initiative in 2001, women are "at special risk because they lack the power to determine how, when, where, and all too often with whom, sex takes place. Gender inequality keeps women uninformed about prevention, powerless to protect themselves, last in line for care and life saving treatment, and imposes an overwhelming burden on them to care for the sick and dying... Gender inequality has always been dehumanizing. Now it is fatal."