In commemoration of World AIDS Day, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Nigeria has reminded the world that the fight against HIV/AIDS is not over.
The Foundation in a press statement sent to LEADERSHIP said “while the world has made significant progress over past decades, the global HIV/AIDS response faces serious threats, including insufficient funding, dangerously high rates of 1.3 million new HIV transmissions annually, an estimated 630,000 deaths each year, and responses not being prioritized highly enough, particularly in lower-income countries.”
As part of the event, the Foundation said Chairman House of Representatives Committee on AIDS, TB and Malaria, Honourable Godwin-Amobi Ogah will flag off a commemorative walk from Berger roundabout to the AHF Nigeria Country office at Jabi, Abuja alongside other Committee members, CSOs, CBOs and youth groups.
With the commemoration, advocates will honor all who have lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses, support those who carry on the fight, and unite people globally in battling HIV/AIDS and reinforce the need to prioritize community effort and action from now on, as reflected in the global theme: ‘Let Community Lead’.
AHF Nigeria Country Program Director (CPD), Dr. Echey Ijezie in the statement said AHF Nigeria is actively and happily playing a supporting role to support the effort of the Nigeria government through NACA and the Federal Ministry of Health to end AIDS by 2030.
“This can be seen in our deliberate interventions across our state where we are prioritizing projects that advances gender equality and that builds the leadership potentials at grassroots level so that in the real sense, we are empowering communities to lead. In three of AHF Nigeria states, Community Advocacy Clubs have been instituted and by the end of the first quarter of 2024, these clubs will be functioning across all our states. Importantly, we are investing heavily in community education through radio to empower rural dwellers on the knowledge and information needed to prevent new infection and guarantee their welfare,” Ijezie said.
AHF Nigeria’s World AIDS Day event includes community testing campaigns across AHF seven (7) program states of Abuja, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa and Cross River. Of note is the special testing campaign in the FCT that AHF is implementing in collaboration with the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA). Across these locations, AHF Nigeria shall also be distributing free condoms with about 75, 000 free condoms slated for distribution.
Observed annually on December 1, World AIDS Day gives HIV/AIDS advocates an opportunity to bring awareness to the global response, fight the harmful stigma and discrimination that hinder people living with HIV from seeking testing and treatment services, and urge governments worldwide to ensure the resources and political will are available to fight HIV/AIDS. On World AIDS Day, the world must remember – it’s not over.
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