More than ever, the church in Ghana must begin to play a leading role in the fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS by providing for those living with the virus, especially children.

This is because, the Church is the only institution established by Jesus Christ and given the mandate to accomplish the mission of God by providing the spiritual, physical and social needs of society. The Church is an unstoppable force that Jesus Christ promised would prevail, even against the very gates of Hades (Matt 16:18).

Against the backdrop of the World AIDS Day which was celebrated last week, Compassion Ghana wishes to remind the Church in Ghana, and indeed the global Church of the role expected of them in the fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS and for those ravaged by the virus.

We encourage churches to start mobilizing their members to contribute to a fund for supporting those living with the virus. We believe supporting the less fortunate in society, especially children living with the HIV and AIDS virus is a form of evangelization, which will in the long term reduce stigmatization. If the Church reaches out to those living with the virus, others will feel comfortable to disclose their status, which will ultimately lead to a reduction in the infection rate.

As part of its work on HIV and AIDS, Compassion International Ghana (CIGH), like Compassion International has been emphasizing on prevention and treatment. Prevention is through the promotion of the Voluntary counseling and Testing (VCT) for children and their parents. This has yielded tremendous results judging from the number of HIV positive people who are disclosing their status. Compassion Ghana provides some of these people with financial support and ART drugs in addition to skills and other essentials, including nutritional support, medical care and testing as well as support for income generation.

Compassion also pays for the expenses that children who are on ART incur when they go for reviews. Compassion International was among the first to pioneer the provision of ART, specifically in Africa where the virus had already done a lot of damage.

When we first began, the scientific community was still skeptical that Africans with AIDS could take the medicine that would keep them alive. While the sense of urgency was growing, commitments to fund the provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) were not forthcoming.

We committed to the provision of the antiretroviral therapy before we really knew the extent of the impact. We just knew that we could not wait any longer, and by providing the highly sought-after ART for those with AIDS, we gave hope to those who prior to this, would not even think about getting tested.

It is in the area of preventive education that Compassion believes the Church can play a leading role. Compassion Ghana has health and social workers at all the 89 Child Development Centers of the Implementing Church Partners (ICPs), who are trained to educate and manage HIV positive cases among children and their families. Our health workers make visiting HIV-positive children and caregivers part of their daily routine.

Though the international commitment to the pandemic has been encouraging, the need is still great, given that more than 33 million people worldwide are estimated to have HIV; and in Ghana those living with the virus are estimated to be over 400,000 according to official figures. On the surface this should not sound the alarm bells, but to the extent that children are among the growing list of those infected should be a source of worry to child advocates. Compassion Ghana is worried at the rate at which adults are defiling and raping children with impunity with the chances of passing on the HIV virus to their victims.

Adults can choose to engage in any form of lifestyles that expose them to HIV and AIDS, but children must be protected from such adults who endanger the lives of children through various forms of child abuse, top among them being defilement. With the celebration of the World AIDS Day still fresh in our minds, our law makers and State institutions charged with protecting children need to reflect soberly and strengthen laws that protect children.

(CIGH) is part of Compassion International and started operating in Ghana in July 2005. Currently, CIGH has 18,600 registered children with 89 church partners who are being sponsored by global partners.

More than a relief programme, CIGH focuses on the holistic development based on their spiritual, physical, economic and social needs.

Compassion's programmes provide tangible benefits like education, health monitoring, as well as developmental opportunities like skills training and motivation to acquire social skills. The ultimate aim of CIGH's programmes is to release children from poverty and enable them to become fulfilled adult Christians.

The country office growth plan for the next two years is to register 43,600 needy children and establish 186 Child Development Centers (CDCs) with church partners in the Central, Eastern and Volta Regions of Ghana.