This 1 December marks the 21st anniversary of World AIDS day

There are many great success stories that we want to tell you about this World AIDS day. However, as is often the case, first there is a big "BUT". This particular "BUT" is the fact that only one in three of the 33 million people living with HIV are receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. The simple reason for this crazy situation is cost. Poor people just can't afford the expensive treatments that could potentially save around 6,000 people a day.

Before this terrible stat makes you feel too down, there is something that you can do to make a difference. Join the 'Stop AIDS' coalition's 'Push for the Pool' campaign and get the government to fund an initiative that's so obvious, you'll wonder why they haven't done it already.

So, what is a patent pool? To strip away the jargon, we want rich country governments to back a scheme where the drugs companies allow cheaper versions of their drugs to be made. In return they receive a fee, and the generic drugs are sold in developing countries. The companies make money and poor people get access to the lifesaving drugs that they need. Simple hey? So, make sure you're one of the 10,000 people telling the government to put some effort and money in to making this happen.

So now the good news. Take a look at what is being achieved by some inspirational people from Orange Farm South Africa.

In Zambia, aid is helping 149,000 people receive free ARV treatment, which significantly increases their chances of staying healthy and living longer. Or to put it another way, more than the population of Brighton, and 50 times more people than were receiving treatment before the scheme was launched in 2003, are now getting the help they need thanks to aid working.

In Malawi, the government has recently trained 2,000 health workers, and 130,000 people countrywide are now on ARV treatment, up from virtually nil only 5 years ago.

So, this World AIDS day we wanted to let you know that good stuff is happening to overcome the impact of HIV/AIDS, but with your continued support we can have even more good news to tell next year.