Kandahar, Afghanistan: Health officials launched a different sort of Afghan offensive Sunday as a brigade of volunteer soldiers armed with clipboards, chalk and tiny bottles of vaccine fanned out across the city, hunting an invisible enemy that preys on the poor and the young.  Read article

Tarinkot, Afghanistan: Taliban and other anti-government insurgents are preventing health workers and volunteers to vaccinate children against polio in remote parts of Afghanistan.  Read article

Dhaka, Bangladesh: Some 700,000 volunteers will deliver polio vaccinations to about 24 million children on in an effort to eliminate the disease in Bangladesh.   Read article

Sigumbeni, Swaziland: Swaziland is increasingly relying on volunteers to provide home-based care to HIV/AIDS-affected persons and their families, especially to elderly living in rural areas. The country has the highest number of HIV-infected people -- 33.4 percent of the population between ages 15 to 49 are infected. The situation is aggravated by the failing public health system and further strained by  Community volunteers organized by the Red Cross, visit homestead after homestead to take care of their clients' conditions -- ensuring they receive medications, arranging doctors' visits and transporting them to collect antiretroviral drugs.  Read article

In Swaziland in southern Africa one in 10 households is run by a child. Society has been hollowed out by HIV and Aids. Orphans are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Some men infected by HIV believe they can be cured by having sex with a child. But now Unicef has set up a unique scheme to protect them.   Read article

Nairobi, Kenya: In Kenya, government agencies and volunteer organizations are joining hands to support children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.  Aside from holding a ceremony to commemorate IVD, volunteers from various agencies will also visit orphanages and hold a tree-planting session.  Read article

Ha Noi, Viet Nam: In a country where more than 100 people are infected with HIV/AIDS every day and where it is still viewed as a “social evil”, it is perhaps surprising that a  soft-spoken 26-year-old mother has become one of the most active people fighting for the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS in Viet Nam.  Read article

Buseleni, Swaziland: Swaziland, a country of just over a million people, is estimated to have 70,000 children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Expecting this figure to rise, the government and international agencies have set up a network of some 430 volunteer-run meeting points to care for these orphans and children at-risk.  Read article

Durban, South Africa: More than 5 000 Durban women have volunteered for the world's largest microbicides clinical trials that will test the efficacy of the anti-HIV product which, if successful, could prevent at least 2.5 million new infections in the developing world over the next five years.  Read article

Johannesburg, South Africa: On the eve of World Health Day (7 April), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies highlights the growing importance of its volunteers involved in community health activities, especially activities related to HIV/AIDS.  Read article