"HIV poses a serious health risk to everyone—particularly to children", Rostropovich said in a statement. "Every day children die, because they do not have access to prevention, treatment, care, and support that could have saved their lives. This is not only a health issue, it is an issue of fundamental equity and human rights."

In 1991, Rostropovich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, created the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to children's health in the former Soviet Union.