HIV/AIDS:In Africa, the continent worst affected by HIV/AIDS, over 12 million children have been orphaned by AIDS. Plan's projects include education and prevention, health care and support, property rights, and livelihood skills training.

Here is an example of a Plan-funded HIV/AIDS project in Kenya, Africa.

"I don't even know where my mother is buried. And when my brother found out my mother had died he was so angry that he took all of her photos and threw them down the toilet. I now don.t have any photos of my mother, but I have them in my mind," recalls Petronila from Kenya, who lost her father and then her mother to HIV/AIDS in 1996, when she was just eight years old.

Petronila, 15, who now lives with her grandmother, was identified by the teacher of her local primary school as a bright student. The teacher then contacted Plan who organised for her to be sponsored and to attend a Plan-supported boarding school. Petronila is now in high school and dreams of becoming a medical doctor.

Ruth, 17, is also from Kenya and also lost both her parents to AIDS. When her mother and father died she was 14 years old and was separated from her brothers and sisters. Ruth could no longer attend school because there was no one to pay her school fees. Each day she faced poverty and discrimination. She felt isolated, scared and vulnerable. "After my parents died, I couldn.t continue with my education. For me, going to school was like going to the moon on a bus . absolutely impossible. With Plan's help, I now have an education and a future" Ruth says.

In Africa, more than 13 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS, 20 million Africans have died. In 2004, an estimated 38 million people globally are infected with HIV/AIDS and a further 5 million continue to be infected each year.

Plan Kenya program manager Rasi Masudi says HIV/AIDS is ruining communities in Kenya. "HIV/AIDS has taken the teachers, the civil servants, community leaders and parents in so many of our communities. If they are not sick, they are dead. Our communities are in crisis."

"By helping children go back to school, Plan has helped reduce infection rates as the children attend classes on HIV/AIDS. We want children to be empowered to change behaviours" Mr Masudi says.

But Plan is helping children, their families and communities cope with the epidemic by offering healthcare, support, education and prevention programs. Plan has assisted Ruth and Petronila go back to school through the Circle of Hope program.

Circle of Hope is an HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and care program centred around children. Through the program, AIDS orphans like Ruth and Petronila receive the support they need. In September 2003, Plan also began in partnership with the Burnett Institute, a Reducing Community Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS program. The program, which is partly funded by the Australian government's overseas aid program AusAID, will run for five years in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique - five countries in sub-Saharan Africa; the region hardest hit by HIV/AIDS.

Ruth and Petronila visited Australia in October 2001 to talk to Victorian school children about Kenya, their lives and what HIV/AIDS has done to their communities.

Plan's HIV/AIDS support and prevention projects such as those described above are funded by donations and partly from child sponsorships.