Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for #TREATMENTFORALLWorld AIDS Day is tomorrow.
Nearly 37 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
And now Ricki Lake is trying her best to stop that number from growing.
The former talk show host was in New York earlier today to launch #TreatmentForAll, a global campaign to help stop the AIDS epidemic by quickly treating all people diagnosed with HIV.
#TreatmentForAll kicked off with the premiere of a documentary that about Lake's humanitarian trip to Malawi with social media personalities Wesley Stromberg, Sammy Wilkinson, Megan Nicole and Melvin Gregg. The film can be see on United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Ray Chambers' Facebook page.
"It is a complete honor and privilege to be a part of this unique campaign to spread the importance of #TreatmentForAll" and to introduce the world to a place that is so near and dear to my heart, The Jacaranda School in Malawi," Lake said in a statement. "Through our mission, our social media influencers and I get to use each of our platforms to educate and hopefully change the landscape of HIV/AIDS globally. This has been a life-changing experience for all of us, one we will never forget, and one we will stay with until the job is done."
The stories documented in the film are heartbreaking, but also inspiring. "I would like to be a doctor," says one young woman, who lost both her parents to AIDS. "I would like to help other people who are sick, who are losing their lives and leaving their children alone like us."
The World Health Organization's recent HIV treatment guidelines call for anyone infected with HIV to be treated immediately. Of the nearly 37 million people living with HIV, only 15.8 million are currently receiving treatment. #TreatmentForAll hopes to reduce the number of AIDS deaths and infections by 50 percent.
#TreatmentForAllIf you could help end HIV/AIDS, would you?Watch & Share #TreatmentForAll
Posted by UN Assistant Secretary-General Ray Chambers on Monday, November 30, 2015