I am running The Great North Run in memory of my late mother and in support of a charity close to hers and my family's heart. The charity I will be donating to is Aids Free Birthright for Children. ABC is a Rotary lead initiative which has so far saved over 5000 children's lives.

The concept for ABC was developed by my old man, now a retired paediatrician. His home visits to Uganda brought him in contact with orphans whose parents had died from HIV. He also became aware of the large number of babies contracting HIV from their mothers. Without treatment most children will die before the age of five or live much shortened and difficult lives. Children in Sub Saharan Africa and developing countries carry the biggest burden of this disease due to lack of access to medical care.

This is particularly likely to occur if the child is born in rural areas where the mothers and children have limited or no access to medical services or education. Poverty and lack of transportation prevent easy access to medical centres. Furthermore rural areas are poorly served by trained medical teams and have meagre access to HIV testing and preventative drugs.

Timely medical intervention can reduce the risk of transmission to less than 2%. In under resourced areas the transmission risk can still be as high as 35%. Yet drugs and procedures are now available that can prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. This prevention gap can only be addressed through coordinated effort. Medical services and knowhow must get to the hard to reach communities in sustainable ways that can be easily adopted by the local health teams. Since

We believe that all children have the right to be born HIV free.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my page, if you want to learn more about the project please visit www.aidsfreebirthrightforchildren.org or email isaac.kibirige@hotmail.co.uk