THAILAND

The Heart Touch™ Project has surpassed its tenth anniversary of providing care to some of the most disadvantaged members of the Los Angeles community. Since early in our existence, that care has extended to children.

We recognize the great need for The Heart Touch™ Project to expand its mission of delivering compassionate touch to children on a global level. In November 2006, we will embark on our first global mission serving the children living in AIDS orphanages in Thailand.

Why Thailand?
In less than a decade, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Thailand has grown from a handful of infections to a major public health threat. Gaining a foothold in injection drug users and commercial sex workers, HIV quickly spread to a wider population of adult males, from them to their wives and partners, and ultimately to their children. The result is a general population epidemic with wide ranging medical, social, and economic consequences.

The direct effects on children are already obvious. By the end of 1994, 16,000 HIV-infected children had been born, and tens of thousands of child prostitutes and street children were at risk of infection. By the turn of the century, more than one million Thai children had at least one HIV-infected parent. Some of these children have been orphaned by the disease; as others were abandoned by infected parents.

Orphans will often have many physical needs such as nutrition and health care, and these can often appear to be the most urgent. But they will have significant emotional needs as well as the sickness and death of a parent is clearly a major trauma for any child. The emotional needs of the children must not be forgotten.

Sources: UNAIDS.org, CIA.gov

THAILAND Population     64,631,595 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.) HIV AND AIDS ESTIMATES Number of people living with HIV     580 000 [330 000 - 920 000] Adults aged 15 to 49 HIV prevalence rate     1.4 [0.7 - 2.1]% Adults aged 15 and up living with HIV     560 000 [320 000 - 900 000] Women aged 15 and up living with HIV     220 000 [100 000 - 370 000] Deaths due to AIDS     21 000 [14 000 - 42 000] GENERALISED EPIDEMICS Children aged 0 to 14 living with HIV     16 000 [5400 - 38 000] Orphans aged 0 to 17 due to AIDS     380,000 + The first case of AIDS in Thailand was reported in September 1984. Although Thailand has achieved substantial success in HIV control with the annual number of new HIV infections dropping from 142,819 in 1991 to 21,260 in 2003, the AIDS crisis will continue to grow as the large number of PLWHAs who were infected during the past 10 years or earlier will develop AIDS in the coming years. According to projections for the next five years, nearly 50,000 new AIDS cases will occur in Thailand every year.