Colourfully dressed in red and white frocks, a group of 30 AIDS-affected girls happily untied a yellow ribbon to throw open the church services.
It was the idea of Christian missionary Gospel Sake to chose a AIDS-affected children to inaugurate the church built at Madurai in Tamil Nadu.It is also a world record since it is the first time that children are inaugurating a church.
Ten pairs of HIV-infected parents also attended the inaugural ceremony. India has roughly 2.5 million people infected with HIV, less than half the number of cases that previous studies estimated.
An earlier U.N. study had estimated 5.7 million HIV cases, which would have been the highest total in the world. But as per the latest available data, India, which has a population of 1.1 billion, has fewer HIV cases than South Africa and Nigeria.
The church authorities said they hoped the event would open the eyes of elders to the fact that children end up being the victims of unprotected sex.They said they are pleased to have children inuagrate the church because children are choice of Lord Jesus Christ.