I would like to reiterate a common place saying in the HIV and AIDS response: `It is not about how you contracted the virus — it is about how we will all respond to the HIV infection.` So there is no room for moralizing the epidemic or placing judgment. I will not keep you guessing- yes, I am HIV positive; I am a woman, and I am from Africa. And I am here to remind each and every one of us of the importance of keeping our promise.
After twenty years’ experience and hundreds of conferences and seminars, it is time to move beyond the endlessly repeated statistics, and to face the AIDS challenge head-on with effective specific solutions. We know what must be done to prevent further infection, expand care, treatment, and support, and reduce stigma and discrimination.
I hope that World AIDS Day will serve to foster greater responsibility in curing the disease, as well as in the commitment to avoid all discrimination of those who have been affected.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls upon “every organ of society” to promote and secure the recognition and observance of human rights.
Gram Bharati Samiti, the first NGO initiating work on HIV/AIDS in Rajasthan in the year 1991, has been involved in many activities i.e. awareness, education and counseling, treating STIs/RTIs, peer education, condom promotion etc. during past 15 years.
Universal treatment by 2010 is the promise. It must be kept.
Let?s make a fresh commitment to the new commandment of Jesus and end ignorance, stigma and isolation.
To make a significant contribution to the struggle against the spread of HIV and to assist Caritas member organisations in mobilising an effective response to the needs posed by the HIV epidemic.
Brothers and Sisters in Islam, today marks another milestone in the fight against the dreaded disease, HIV/AIDS, which has either infected or affected all of us irrespective of tribe, race or religion.
It is not your responsibility to finish the work of repairing the world, but neither are you free to desist from it.