The Country Director of UNAIDS Nigeria, Dr Leopold Zekeng, has called for communities\u2019 support to end the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic by 2030, which is part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).<\/p>\n
He made the call in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, ahead of 2023 World AIDS Day (WAD), annually marked on Dec. 1 to raise awareness about the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.<\/p>\n
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that WAD is a global observance and an opportunity for people worldwide to unite and show support to people living with HIV, commemorate those who died from AIDS-related illnesses, and as advocates increased efforts to prevent new infections.<\/p>\n
The theme of the global celebration is \u201cLet Communities Lead,\u201d domesticated in Nigeria as \u201cCommunities\u2019 Leadership to End AIDS by 2030.\u2019\u2019 AIDS is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which damages the immune system and interferes with the body\u2019s ability to fight infections.<\/p>\n
Zekeng said the theme reflected the country\u2019s recognition of the significant role of communities\u2019 leadership in driving the goals and targets for ending HIV\/AIDS by 2030.
\nHe described communities as \u201cpeople living with, at risk of, or affected by HIV, leading the frontline of progress in the HIV response.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunities play significant roles, particularly in hard-to-reach areas where access to modern healthcare services is limited.
\n\u201cThey also play important roles where the barriers of inequalities and experiences of stigma and discrimination constrain the uptake of HIV, tuberculosis, and related health services.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He cited the Global Fund\u2019s statistics, which show that community organisations in Nigeria reached more than one million people with HIV interventions in 2022.<\/p>\n
The community organisations provided support for counselling services in 2020 and distributed over 5.5 million condoms and supported thousands of people living with the virus.<\/p>\n
The country director commended the contributions of Network of People Living with HIV\/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), Association of Women Living with HIV\/AIDS in Nigeria (ASWHAN), Association of Positive Youths (APYIN), among others, in the HIV response.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cIt is also good to mention the initiative of the Community \u201ciMonitor +\u201d app for HIV\/AIDS communities.
\n\u201cIt is a novel digital approach toward improving community engagement and empowerment of PLWH in Nigeria.
\n\u201cThe app provides a platform for communities to report abuses and rights violations, information on service centres and surveys to track activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community of PLHIV in the country demonstrated evidently that they are not only beneficiaries of services but are contributing and driving the lead in the HIV\/AIDS response in Nigeria.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He, however, added that dwindling resources, capacity constraints, and intermittent infringements on human rights as well as structural barriers in Nigeria, are barriers affecting communities\u2019 efforts in the HIV response.
\nHe suggested that \u201ccommunities will lead but need our support to overcome the challenges.
\n\u201cEngaging and empowering diverse communities requires deliberate efforts to build strong relationships,
\ncontinuous learning, adapting to changing circumstances, and celebrating incremental achievements.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He, therefore, reiterated the commitment of UNAIDS and other partners to support the government in ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 (NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Country Director of UNAIDS Nigeria, Dr Leopold Zekeng, has called for communities\u2019 support to end the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic by 2030, which is part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He made the call in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, ahead of 2023 World AIDS Day (WAD), annually marked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":8759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8760,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752\/revisions\/8760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}