Persons living with HIV speak out on World AIDS Day

2 Dec 2010

Persons living with HIV speak out on World AIDS Day

1 December 2010 – Access to treatment, care and support are fundamental human rights, was the message of World AIDS Day sent through yesterday's celebrations in Sudan.
The theme of 2009 and this year's World AIDS Day was "Universal access and human rights", calling for commitment in HIV prevention of new infections, support, care, treatment and promotion of human rights.
"I'm sending a message to you. Look at me, am I that different from you?," said Richard, a member of the Club for People Living with HIV, addressing participants observing the day on 1 December at the UNMIS Headquarters in Khartoum.
Richard, who has been living with the virus for five years, added that he had experienced numerous ways of discrimination by his government, employers and even by friends and family, and called for equal treatment.
"Before I got infected I never realized that HIV existed in Sudan ... only when I tested positive did I realize that it's real," he said, encouraging everyone to get tested and know their status to prevent spreading of the disease.
Speaking at the Khartoum event, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) Haile Menkerios emphasized that prevention and care are fundamental human rights.
SRSG Menkerios added that the UNMIS HIV/AIDS unit had sensitized and conducted training for various vulnerable groups of the Sudanese community, including police, internally displaced persons, prisoners and participants of the integrated disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme.
Mr. Menkerios then read Secretary-General (SG) Ban Ki-moon's message for the World AIDS Day, which stated that the AIDS epidemic had started to slow down but a new path needed to be charted to halt it and prevent discrimination.
"Travel restrictions for people living with HIV are being lifted by many countries, as stigma gives way -- still too slowly -- to compassion and recognition of human rights," the SG's message read.
In the Southern Sudanese capital of Juba, the UNMIS HIV/AIDS unit held a two-hour sensitization programme for staff members on 30 November. Speaking at the event, UNMIS regional HIV/AIDS coordinator Jacqueline Nyanga urged participants to "lead by example" in raising HIV/AIDS awareness of the host communities.
The following day, UNMIS peacekeepers joined the Southern Sudan AIDS Commission's (SSAC) celebrations at the Dr. John Garang Mausoleum in Juba.
Thousands of residents converged at Wau town's Peace Square for a procession to the Freedom Square to celebrate the day. Western Bahr El-Ghazal State Governor Rizik Zackaria Hassan said the government had opened three HIV testing centres in Mapel, Wau and Raja Counties.
The UNMIS Welfare Committee in Wau donated clothes and medicine to people living with HIV/AIDS in the town.
In Warrap State, SSAC Commissioner Dr. Emmanuel Deng Akol urged the United Nations and the government to fight HIV/AIDS collectively. Highlighting the state's milestones, Dr. Deng said that 46 health workers had received HIV/AIDS training and that a voluntary counselling and testing centre in the state capital of Kuajok had been opened. However, he lamented that residents were still reluctant to get tested.