‘BORN HIV FREE’ CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED WITH SUPPORT OF CARLA BRUNI-SARKOZY 

At Engage we are all LOVING the Born HIV Free Campaign - check it out and sign up at www.bornhivfree.org

EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY,

A CHILD IS BORN WITH HIV. 

WE MUST STOP THIS. AND NOW WE CAN. 

Paris, 19 May 2010 –The Global Fund has launched its BORN HIV FREE campaign to mobilize public support for its work and for a world where by 2015 no child is born with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Unveiled in the presence of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Global Fund Ambassador, this is one of the most ambitious digital campaigns of its kind.

At the core of the campaign is a series of films and events intended to inspire people to sign up online in support of The Global Fund’s mission.

Transmission of HIV from mothers to their children has nearly been eliminated in Europe, North America and other industrialized parts of the world. In contrast, in developing countries, 430,000 children are born with HIV every year – that is well over 1,000 every day. The campaign’s main message is that “We can put a stop to this in the next five years. A world where children are BORN HIV FREE is now possible”.

The campaign uses a set of imaginative animations that will be available across digital and traditional media platforms to spread awareness about the opportunity the world has to ensure a virtually HIV-free generation by 2015 and to engender support for this goal, as well as The Global Fund’s wider mission of fighting AIDS, TB and malaria. The campaign asks all viewers to show their support by signing their name on the campaign’s “virtual wall of support”.

The campaign will run through until October 2010 when donors will meet in New York to pledge financial contributions for the next three years for The Global Fund’s work.  By focusing on a world where virtually all children can be BORN HIV FREE, the campaign draws attention to one of the many ambitious and realizable goals the world can accomplish if it continues to increase investment s in global health. By signing up on the “the virtual wall of support” people can signal to their country’s government that they approve of the use of public resources to fight these global pandemics.

“It is heartbreaking that over 400,000 babies are born with HIV every year even though we have the medical means and the expertise to prevent this,” says Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the Global Fund’s Ambassador for Mothers and Children against AIDS. “I hope the BORN HIV FREE campaign will inspire millions of Europeans to support the Global Fund so we can finally put an end to this terrible injustice.”

 “We can win this battle against AIDS if we get the funding we require,” says Professor Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “This campaign is intended to encourage people to sign up in support of the Global Fund and to show their leaders that there is strong public support to continue and increase funding for its mission.”

The campaign brings together several major media companies that have joined up as official partners in support of The Global Fund: Google, JC Decaux, MSN, Orange and YouTube. The campaign was conceived by French producer and musician Julien Civange at the request of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and co-produced with The Global Fund.