Partnering through PEPFAR to reach young women and girls

As a key partner of U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC is also one of the lead agencies working to implement two powerful HIV initiatives aimed at reaching children, adolescents, and young women – the Accelerating Children’s HIV/AIDS Treatment program and the DREAMS initiative.

Through the Accelerating Children’s HIV/AIDS Treatment (ACT) initiative, we will support PEPFAR’s goal to enable 300,000 more children to receive life-saving ART across priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Likewise through the DREAMS initiative, a multi-pronged approach to help adolescent girls and young women live Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe lives, PEPFAR and its implementing agencies aim to drive down HIV infections among girls ages 15-24 in high-burden geographic areas. During the 2015 UN General Assembly, the Obama administration announced that PEPFAR is now investing nearly half a billion dollars to support an AIDS-free future for adolescent girls and young women. This includes strategically aligning $300 million in additional prevention investments in support of the DREAMS partnership and related efforts.

These programs are critical and they will make a difference.

As we mark the International Day of the Girl, we must recommit ourselves to reversing the HIV epidemic among girls, so they can grow up to lead a generation free of AIDS.