2. A million more birthdays a year. When women living with HIV become pregnant, they often turn to PEPFAR for the medicine and counseling they need to avoid transmitting the virus to their babies. Today, there are a million children all around the world living happy, healthy, HIV-free lives because of this work. They have the chance to go to school, make friends, and build lives without the burden of illness holding them back.

3. Partnering, not just parachuting in. One of the key tenets of PEPFAR’s strategy is that “programs must be country-owned and country-driven.” It’s a recognition that development is a two-way street between donor organizations and people in need. That’s why, in the 65 countries that PEPFAR operates, the initiative empowers people to share responsibility as front line health care workers and counselors in their own communities. They are joining together to encourage neighbors, friends and family to get tested, get treatment, and speak openly about the realities of the disease.

4. Saving lives is just the beginning. When we think about development organizations like PEPFAR, we often measure success in terms of the most immediately available metrics: money raised and medicine delivered. But their true impact goes well beyond that. Organizations like PEPFAR are crucial because they help people around the world live with independence, dignity, and pride. They give mothers and fathers the chance to support their families and watch their children grow up. That’s an opportunity that everyone, everywhere deserves.

5. We can win this fight together. Last year – for the first time – more people were added to HIV treatment than were newly infected with the disease. That is an important mile marker on the path to the end of AIDS. It proves that we can achieve incredible progress when we join together to share the effort, the resources, and the responsibility to end AIDS once and for all.