On the World AIDS Day, the D.R.E.A.M. program celebrates its 20 thousandth healthy baby born in Africa from an HIV positive mother. It is a precise, physical, tangible call to our responsibility to take care of each other, which we should all share.

The D.R.E.A.M. Program (Drug Resources Enhancement against Aids and Malnutrition) concentrates its attention on the culture of life. It is for this reason that the Community of Sant’Egidio, who initiated the DREAM Program in Mozambique in 2002 and which today is being implemented in ten African countries, is happy to announce this birth which gives a significant sense to this special day mostly because AIDS cannot be fought only on December 1st. AIDS has to be fought everyday.

Until a few years ago, to be cured seemed an impossible dream, but therapy has donated a new energy: it is a reality for more than five million patients in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The challenge is all in the prevention of the transmission of the virus from mother to child in order to have a new generation free from AIDS. But also in providing treatment for the mothers, in order not to produce a generation of orphans. Challenges of this magnitude require the very best of each one of us.

We are all very concerned for the financial and economic world crisis. But we also believe that ending poverty and inequality through Universal Access to treatment and health education disseminated to all generations and in all communities, release a vast human potential, promoting peace and prosperity.

For these reasons we wish that governments, donors, the international community, the civil society, the private sector, will commit to a bigger effort and new financial and human resources as well as a wider interest and passion for Africa: only this synergy will allow to reach the aim of saving the lives of so many people.

The right to treatment is a fundamental human right, which should be respected.

Lets use this World Day for the Fight Against AIDS to improve the response and the action to create a better future for little Andrew who is just born, as well as for the future generations.