The pandemic has killed 25 million Africans so far and orphaned more than 12 million others. Each year, 3.2 million Africans – 8,700 Africans every minute — are infected with the HIV virus. Approximately 2.3 million Africans –most of them in the prime of their lives as parents and workers-- are killed by it each year.

In just over a decade, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has reversed many of Africa’s development achievements of previous decades. It has reduced life expectancy in some countries by nearly 40 years and is the leading cause of death on the continent. The pandemic has emerged clearly as the paramount threat to development in the region.

Recognizing the negative impact the pandemic is having on Africa’s development efforts, the LADY OF HOPE – has, notably since 1986, placed it at the center of its work in Africa.

Under the (MAP) for Africa, the Organisation has committed more than US$ 1 billion. The MAP project has triggered and funded projects to combat HIV/AIDS in 28 sub-Saharan African countries, including more than 25,000 subprojects by civil society and or community-based organizations. All MAP funds are grants. Launched in September 2000, MAP constitutes the first phase of a 12-15 year World Bank program to scale up national HIV/AIDS efforts and to support sub regional or multi-country initiatives in combating the pandemic.

One such example is the US$1.6 million HIV/AIDS project for the Corridor (ALTC), which focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention among high-risk groups situated along the main highway linking the five West African countries of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

Of the 9 million African CHILDREN are living with HIV, close to 2 million have advanced to the stage where antiretroviral drugs are necessary to forestall or reverse the onset of full-blown AIDS. Yet, only 100,000 of all those infected in Africa have access to treatment.

To scale up access to care and antiretroviral therapy, the Organisation has made available US$2.8 million to a pilot project in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique. The Treatment Acceleration Project, as it is called, builds on the April 2004 partnership agreement which the Bank signed with the Global Fund, UNICEF and the Clinton Foundation to make available high-quality AIDS medicine at low prices to developing countries.

Many other cross-country initiatives are envisaged or await approval, including one which aims to build capacity among medical and paramedical staff working on HIV/AIDS in the three East African nations of Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.