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On Tuesday, UNICEF
released its first-ever report on the challenges facing the world’s 1.2 billion
people ages 10-19, a group comprising 18 percent of the global population.
“Progress for Children: A Report Card on Adolescents” was issued to coincide
with this week’s meeting of the UN Commission on Population Development.
Among the key
findings of the report:
*Some 2.2 million
people ages 10-19 are living with HIV, and most are unaware of their infection.
Girls account for 1.3 million of adolescent HIV cases. Many HIV-positive
adolescents contracted the virus at birth, while others were infected through
unprotected sex or sharing needles.
*Adolescent girls in
developing countries often marry and bear children at too young an age,
hampering their educational opportunities. Approximately 16 million girls ages
15-19 give birth each year worldwide; 90 percent of births to adolescents occur
within marriage. Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa have the
highest proportion of teenage births.
*1.4 million
adolescents die from injuries related to childbirth complications, traffic
accidents, suicide, AIDS, gang-related violence, and other causes.
*Though 90 percent of
the world’s children are enrolled in primary school, secondary school
enrollment drops off dramatically; this is particularly true in developing
nations in Africa and Asia. Worldwide, 71 million adolescents do not attend
secondary school, and up to 127 million young people ages 15-24 are illiterate
- mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The Friends of AIDS
Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive
individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread
of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please
visit:
http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
