In Mumbai, India, a woman widowed by AIDS lives with her ten-year-old son on the doorstep of the house she should have inherited, barred entry by her in-laws.

In a village in Nepal, a former migrant worker mourns his wife as he cares for his four children, two of whom are HIV positive.

In Cambodia, an orphaned nine-year-old boy and his little brother travel alone across the country in search of relatives who will offer them a home.

Across Asia and the Pacific there are countless stories like this with one common theme; they involve children.

Orphaned, stigmatized, driven to work and exploitation, sometimes contracting the virus from their mothers at birth, children feel the effects of HIV and AIDS more than any other sector of society.

The theme of next week's 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Colombo is 'Waves of Change, Waves of Hope.' Alongside UN agencies, NGOs and government representatives discussing a diverse range of HIV-related issues, international NGO World Vision will be highlighting the plight of children.

"Without adults to care for them, children orphaned by HIV and AIDS are vulnerable to many forms of hardship and discrimination, from missing out on school or being underpaid in child labour, through to sexual abuse or trafficking," said World Vision regional advocacy director Laurence Gray.

"Governments, local authorities and community members need to open their eyes to the vulnerabilities of the children in their care and take urgent steps to protect them from the effects of HIV and AIDS."

World Vision will produce and circulate a summary of each day's proceedings at the ICAAP meeting, commencing Monday 20 August, with a special emphasis on the issues and solutions that concern children.

This summary will be available online at http://www.wvasiapacific.org/content/view/232/1/ and will be emailed daily to partners and media expressing interest.

Please contact Katie Chalk, katie_chalk@wvi.org to add your name to the mailing list for next week's ICAAP summaries from World Vision.

Media interviews: ---------------- Call World Vision's ICAAP team line on +94725305965 to organize interviews with key spokespeople, including:

Lalthangsei, Programme Manager - World Vision CARE project, Aizwal, Mizoram

Lalthangsei has been working for eight years among marginalized communities in the state of Mizoram, north-eastern India - especially high-risk communities such as injecting drug users. On Tuesday 21 August, she will deliver a presentation to ICAAP on "Changing the lives of injecting drug users through intervention." Lalthangsei speaks fluent English and Mizo.

D Clement Timothy, Programme Quality Manager - HIV and AIDS, World Vision India

Clement has been with World Vision's community health programs since 2001 and is currently implementing programs in Uttar Pradesh. On Tuesday 21 August he will make a poster presentation to ICAAP on 'Community based care for orphans and vulnerable children in low HIV prevalence, resource poor setting in Bangalore city, India - lessons learned.' Clement is a prolific speaker fluent in English and Tamil.

A Padmaja, General Secretary, Positive Women Network Chennai

Padmaja joined PWN+ in the year 1999, to speak and advocate for women living with HIV and AIDS. PWN + is the only organization that has been started by HIV positive women and children by HIV and AIDS in India, with a vision that all women and children who are infected or affected by HIV and AIDS have a right to a life of dignity and equality free from stigma and discrimination. She is a prolific speaker fluent in English, Telugu and Tamil, committed to being a voice for women living with HIV and children affected by HIV and AIDS

Heather Ferreira, World Vision Project Officer, HIV and AIDS in Mumbai

Heather joined World Vision in the early nineties as a HIV educator in Mumbai, working on awareness for adolescent girls as a way of forestalling the disease in its early days in India. She helped to design some of the first programmes responding to the pandemic in Mumbai and now leads one of the strongest child-focussed intervention programmes there. Heather will be making a poster presentation to ICAAP on 'Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission of HIV - Government Private Partnership through a community based approach in Mumbai'. Heather is fluent in English, Marathi and Hindi and has wide experience in interacting with media as part of her work with HIV in Mumbai.

More about World Vision's work in Asia and the Pacific - http://www.wvasiapacific.org

More about ICAAP - http://www.icaap8.lk/