McGregor in plea for Aids help

Actor Ewan McGregor has appealed for world leaders and the public to unite in helping children affected by the Aids virus in Malawi

The Scots film star made the call after his first field trip as a UNICEF ambassador to the impoverished African country.

The five-day trip let the actor see how children are paying the price in the HIV/Aids pandemic and what still needs to be done to reach the thousands who are orphaned or living with the disease.

Malawi, one of the countries most affected by the virus in Southern Africa, is home to half a million children who have been orphaned and nearly a million people living with the disease.

As many as 70,000 children die of Aids-related illnesses across Malawi every year.

On his return to the UK earlier this week, the star of the cult classic Trainspotting made an urgent plea for action to reach the millions of children needing care, medicines and support.

He said: "Children in Malawi are facing uncertain futures. Their mothers and fathers, teachers, aunts, uncles, doctors and nurses are simply dying around them because of Aids.

"They are left alone, forced to grow up too fast, robbed of their childhoods and missing out on the play, love and education they need.

"Though many are being reached through the UNICEF projects I saw during my trip, we need to urgently reach the ones who are still all alone.

"UNICEF is calling on everyone - world leaders, governments, corporations and the general public - to unite in action against Aids and put children at the centre of the global response."

The visit took place just six weeks after UNICEF launched its largest ever global campaign for children affected by HIV or Aids.

The campaign, Unite for Children, Unite against Aids, highlights for the first time how children are the missing face of the pandemic.

It reveals how children are missing out on the global response to the pandemic; across the world, fewer than 5 % of children in need of anti-retroviral treatment are receiving it and fewer than 10% of the world's 15 million children orphaned by Aids are receiving any external assistance.

By 2010, it is estimated that there will be 18 million children who have lost at least one parent to Aids in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

The actor also appealed for for donations.

He added: "UNICEF urgently needs money to help give orphans the care and support they need.

"We need to drastically increase the number of vital prevention and education projects for young people in Malawi and across the world and ensure access to ARV drugs for all, including children, before 2010."

In 2004 McGregor, from Perthshire, who also starred in Moulin Rouge, took a break from filming to pursue his dream of motorbiking around the world and adventure captured in the documentary Long Way Round.

Whilst circumnavigating the globe, he took time out to visit UNICEF projects in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.