By the year 2004, more than 15 million children had been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. How many people live in the country in which you are reading this SOS-Kinderdorf-FORUM? In Austria, there are eight million. Twice as many children have lost their parents through AIDS. The suffering, the destruction and the despair the illness has brought with it are almost incomprehensible.
It was our concern that this "scourge of humanity" will not stop at our SOS Children's Villages that prompted us to dedicate the current issue of FORUM to this topic. What is the position of SOS Children's Villages regarding the care and support of AIDS victims? What happens to infected co-workers? What to infected children? These are questions we have to face.