|PIC1|Daleep Mukarji is the director of Christian Aid. He spoke to Christian Today at a Stop AIDS Campaign rally outside Parliament on Thursday to coincide with World AIDS Day on 1 December.

CT: So what is the current situation with AIDS at the moment in the world?

DM: Well the United Nations has told us today that HIV/Aids is still a very serious problem. Thirty-three million people are living with HIV and Aids, 90 per cent of them are in developing countries. Seventy per cent of them don't even get access to healthcare, immunisation and the drugs they need.

Now we [at Christian Aid] believe in the Stop AIDS Campaign, because it's concerned about life and it's concerned about hope and it's concerned about giving people a quality of life.

We've got to work with our Government and the international community to really make a difference. This means spending lots of money in the right places in the right way, working with civil society, faith groups, government leaders and others so that we tackle this on an urgent war footing and really bring life and hope, especially at this Advent time and this Christmas time, to be able to say to people 'we can make a difference'.

CT: Why are you rallying here today?

DM: Today's event is because of Worlds Aids Day and because our Government is looking at its own strategy for the next three years. We want to remind our ministers that we as the British public and the British civil society organisations, NGOs and faith groups are wanting our government to continue to take the lead that they have taken, to put money into the international fight against Aids, to be able to influence the international leaders of the World Bank, the IMF, the European Union and the United States so that together we can actually do something about HIV and Aids.

But the campaign cannot be one day, it needs to continue because every day 5,700 people die. Every day another 8,000 people get HIV and Aids. So this is not going to happen unless they put it on a war footing. Today is just an event in an ongoing campaign, a commitment to get our Government and international leaders to put money and action where it matters.

CT: So what plans do you have for World Aids Day?

DM: For World AIDS Day, Christian Aid is working with local churches in various parts [of the country]. Last night I was speaking in Derby Cathedral, tomorrow I'm speaking in Lichfield Cathedral on World AIDS Day.

HIV and Aids is an important issue for us in Christian Aid. Why is it important? Because it's not just an issue of disease and health, it's an issue of poverty, it's an issue of discrimination, it's an issue in which people are denied their humanity and denied basic human rights.

As people of faith we believe it is important for us to get involved. Christian Aid uses World AIDS Day and events around it for encouraging people here to put their faith into action, encouraging people here to speak out and stand up for the side of people who are excluded and marginalised because of HIV and Aids.

But also we want to show to our Government that people want the Government to spend their taxpayers money on these issues. So yes, this weekend is an affirmation of our own organisation's commitment and I think of the public's commitment to get our Government to lead.

CT: What kind of programmes does Christian Aid run around the world to tackle HIV and Aids?

DM: We do a lot of programmes. We are working for example in South Africa with the Anglican Church on a huge programme to get the Church involved with sharing and coping and helping bereaved families, but more importantly to be able to speak up and tell people 'when you are positive, come out'.

If we can get it out into the public arena and see it as another disease then we can do something about it.

We are working in Zambia where we have a special programme in equipping women who live there to help each other to support each other and to educate the community around what their rights are, because women unfortunately are often affected.

We're working in the Democratic Republic of Congo where sadly a lot of women after the recent civil war have been raped, and because of their rape and sexual abuse have got HIV and Aids and the problem there is to help them to handle this.

So we are working with local churches, local communities, local women and more importantly the people living with Aids to help them speak out and take a leap in serving their community.

We have 129 programmes in various parts of the world. The great thing about it is its integrated into our long-term development programme, because you can't handle HIV and Aids without handling the stigma, without handling the education, without handling the faith and religious dimension but also the human rights dimension, all of that has to be handled together.