First ladies fromAfrica and China working towards a future free from AIDS 05 SEPTEMBER 2018
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Published time: 2018-09-17
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First ladies from across Africa and the FirstLady of China, Peng Liyuan, have reaffirmed their commitment to a future freefrom AIDS by spearheading a new joint initiative to prevent HIV among youngpeople.
First ladies from across Africa and the FirstLady of China, Peng Liyuan, have reaffirmed their commitment to a future freefrom AIDS by spearheading a new joint initiative to prevent HIV among youngpeople. China will work with African countries and international organizationsto implement a three-year health promotion and HIV prevention advocacyprogramme for adolescents, starting in 2019. The China–Africa advocacy campaign waslaunched on 4 September on the margins of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forumon China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), in Beijing, China. The campaign aims toincrease young people’s access to integrated sexual and reproductive health andHIV services and strengthen their engagement in the AIDS response. Globally, there are around 3.9 million youngpeople between the ages of 15 and 24 years living with HIV. Around 1600 youngpeople acquire HIV every day and a young person dies every 10 minutes from ofan AIDS-related illness. Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director ofUNAIDS, thanked the first ladies for their collective action in the AIDSresponse and urged them to continue their high-level advocacy to mobilizeresources to support youth engagement for HIV prevention, treatment and care.“Engaging young people means supporting them as partners and leaders in theAIDS response,” said Mr Sidibé. “We will only pick up the pace if we workclosely with young people.” Discussions during the event focused onaddressing what puts young people at risk of HIV, including stigma,discrimination, gender-based violence and limited access to reproductive healthservices and information. The first ladies recognized that ending the AIDSepidemic among adolescents and young people requires amplifying investmentswhere they can make the most difference, such as comprehensive sexualityeducation, and fostering innovative and multisectoral HIV preventionprogrammes. During the event, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,the Director-General of the World Health Organization, spoke aboutHIV/tuberculosis coinfection. Tuberculosis is a leading cause of death ofpeople living with HIV. The first ladies of Africa and China willjoin forces to stop new HIV infections among young people by sharinginformation, helping each other to build expertise and mobilizing resources forjoint advocacy for HIV prevention. The first ladies’ HIV advocacy eventconcluded with the endorsement of a joint statement that calls on governmentsto ensure HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services and universalhealth coverage, especially for young people, in order to ultimately reach thegoal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. On the sidelines of FOCAC, Mr Sidibé and theFirst Lady of Malawi, Gertrude Mutharika, met with StarTimes to explore howbest to harness new technologies to reach young people with HIV preventionservices. StarTimes is using its platform to share HIV prevention and awarenessmessages through digital television and its new social media application.
