Thousands of AIDS experts cheered on Sunday at an international AIDS conference when the president of the International AIDS Society, Dr. Julio Montaner, announced that the incidence of HIV is decreasing in African countries helped by former President George W. Bush's AIDS initiative.

Bush's pet project, President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (better known as PEPFAR), focused on the worst-hit African countries and is credited with saving millions of lives.

In 2003, PEPFAR was launched to combat global HIV/AIDS - the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in history.

Through 2013, PEPFAR plans to work in partnership with host nations to support:

• Treatment for at least 3 million people
• Prevention of 12 million new infections
• Care for 12 million people, including 5 million orphans and vulnerable children

To meet these goals and build sustainable local capacity, PEPFAR will support training of at least 140,000 new health care workers in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care.

This table provides a compelling view of how HIV/AIDS is ravaging Africa

HIV/AIDS statistics for Africa at the end of 2007, compared to the rest of the world.

Want to do something about the epidemic in Africa? Get inspired by some Do Something kids who are working to help the continent!

• Poetry for Change is asking for submissions for a book of poetry whose proceeds will go to Africa Aid, a organization that helps get medical devices, education, and food to Africa.
• Arts Education International is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide outlets of expression and positivity through the arts to orphaned and abandoned children in West Africa and the Caribbean. Many of the children have been orphaned primarily by the AIDS epidemic.