International Day of the Girl

Ashton Josephs for the Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS

Every year on 11 October, International Day of the Girl asks the world to look at what girls need to grow up safe, healthy and in charge of their own futures. This year’s theme calls for urgent investment in girls’ rights.

For the girls and families the Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS works alongside, the right to health is one of the most basic of those rights, and one of the least reliably met. Girls growing up with HIV, or in households affected by it, need treatment, but they also need adolescent-friendly health services, sexual and reproductive health information, mental health support and the chance to stay in school.

Too often, those needs are met by separate programmes, funded through separate lines, and delivered in separate places. A girl or her caregiver may have to travel, queue and explain her situation several times over. Many simply stop going.

Integration is how a right becomes real. When paediatric and adolescent HIV care sits within broader child and adolescent health services, and links to education and social protection, a girl is reached where she already is. She doesn’t have to choose between services or face stigma at each door.

Sustainable financing has to follow. Integrated care doesn’t happen by accident. It needs funders and governments to align and pool resources, and to pay for the coordination that holds services together. It also needs long-term, flexible funding for the community and organisations who already know what works and who is being missed.

This International Day of the Girl, we’re calling on governments, donors and partners to:

  • Fund integrated services that treat a girl’s health, education and wellbeing as one
  • Back community organisations and organisations with flexible, long-term resources
  • Include girls and young women in decisions about how money is spent and services are designed

“HIV thrives where gender inequality persists.1“  Winnie Byanyima,
UNAIDS Executive Director

Girls have told us what they need. The job now is to fund it in a way that works. Join our Advocacy Workshop on Monday 2 November to help shape the future of financing and HIV care for children and young people. Register here.

Ashton Josephs, Communications Adviser
The Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS

1.https://unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2026/march/20260306_iwd