On August 13-18, 2006 Toronto will be hosting the XVI International AIDS Conference. Over 20,000 delegates and a virtual army of foreign media will descend on the city.

Because the international conference is so large, there are often limited opportunities for delegates working in specialized areas of HIV and AIDS to participate in focused discussions and network with peers. With this in mind, The Teresa Group in partnership with The Hospital for Sick Children is holding a two-day international symposium on August 11 -12, just prior to the main conference. The Envisioning the Future Symposium will focus on issues specific to children affected by HIV and AIDS and will be geared to professionals and organizations that work with them.

Worldwide, children affected by HIV and AIDS have become invisible casualties of this devastating disease. Far too often they are robbed of their childhood through stigma and discrimination, poverty, the loss of parents and siblings, the unpredictability of their own or their parents’ disease and the loss of educational opportunities. Globally, children affected by HIV and AIDS constitute an enormous societal challenge and the problem is expected to grow throughout the 21st century.

While the Envisioning the Future Symposium is being hosted by The Teresa Group and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, it is being organized as an international gathering. We expect that the symposium will attract many of the world leaders in the field of children affected by HIV and AIDS.

The goals of the symposium are:

1. To raise public and media awareness around the issues confronting children affected by HIV and AIDS.
2. To provide an international forum for discussion of best practices and emerging issues relating to affected children, such as prevention of mother to child transmission, paediatric treatment and protection, and care and support of vulnerable children.
3. Lay the groundwork for the development of an ongoing international network of community organizations, researchers, health professionals and others whose work is in the field of children affected by HIV and AIDS.

In October of 2005, UNICEF announced a Global Campaign on Children and AIDS. This symposium is very much in keeping with the campaign’s ‘Leadership in Partnership’ goal of strengthening global partnerships to achieve the best possible results for children affected by HIV and AIDS.