IRVINE, CA (ANS) -- Bruce Sonnenberg, a Christian pioneer in the battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, has asked Christians around the world, “Who cares for these people?”

Bruce Sonnenberg and Dan Wooding at World AIDS Conference in Mexico City

He was speaking just before World AIDS Day –- December 1, 2009 -- as many in the Church still don’t seem to care about the millions hit by this terrible scourge that continues to infect so many people each year, including many in the Church.

This year’s theme for World AIDS Day 2009 is, “Universal Access and Human Rights,” and many secular, and some Christian global leaders, have pledged to work towards universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care, recognizing these as fundamental human rights.

Sonnenberg, founder and president of He Intends Victory, a Southern California ministry that reaches out to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, believes the theme for this year should have been, “Who Cares?”

He told ANS, “Too many people in this world, including many Christians, still have the attitude of ‘Who Cares?’ when it comes to HIV/AIDS. Many still think, ‘They did it to themselves!’ Yet the truth is that 52% of the 2,500,000 people infected in India are faithful, monogamous wives whose husbands were not faithful and infected them. We have a long way to go.

“We desire the ‘Right to Health’ to be for everyone yet, for every two people infected with HIV, another five do not have access to the HAART drugs (those medications for people living with HIV.) We still have a long way to go.

“We want children everywhere to be loved and cared for, yet there are close to 15 million children worldwide who this night have neither a father nor mother to tuck them into a bed -- if they had a bed! But who really cares?”

In answering his own question, Sonnenberg said, “We, at He Intends Victory, do care and Jesus cares! And we're doing something about it.”

Started on December 1, 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.4 million people living with HIV, including 2.1 million children. During 2008 some 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

A vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS live in lower -- and middle-income countries. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.

He Intends Victory began in 1989 and now is working in many countries around the world. If you would like help or know more about He Intends Victory, just go to their website which is: www.heintendsvictory.com. You can also get free books, including my book, He Intends Victory, by clicking on www.heintendsvictory.com/page/complimentary-books. If you need help, or counseling and live in North America, you can call 1-800-HIV-Hope.

Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 43 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, also recently released “God’s Ambassadors in Japan” which is available at amazon.com.