Four non-governmental organisations have set up a national advocacy campaign on HIV/AIDS to reach over 30,000 people across eight high-risk states in Nigeria from November 30 this year as part of the World AIDS Day celebration.
The campaign, which began in 2015, will reach the targeted audience in Lagos, Oyo, FCT Abuja, Imo, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Gombe, and Kano states respectively.
With the theme, ‘Know Your Status’, the advocacy campaign is a collaborative effort among Red-Ribbon Coalition, Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF), Society for Family Health (SFH), Development Communications Network convened by Coca-Cola.
The partnership aims to provide an opportunity for people to unite in the fight against HIV, show support for people living with HIV and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness.
According to YEF representative, Iwalola Akin-Jimoh, research shows that HIV infection has spread over the last 32 years in Africa since it was first discovered. It has continued to have a great impact on health, welfare and employment, affecting all social and ethnic groups throughout the world.
“Therefore, this year’s advocacy campaign targets multiple communities across Eight high-risk States in Nigeria through a combination of activities like media awareness, voluntary counselling and testing, public education and awareness sessions and entertainment using drama and football,” he added.
It is estimated, however, that about 3, 229,757 people living with HIV in Nigeria and about 220,393 new HIV infections occurred in 2013 and 210,031 died from AIDS-related cases.
He spoke further that HIV prevalence among adults in Nigeria is relatively low (3.2%), yet Nigeria is an enormous country where HIV infection remains an issue that demands a systematic and highly tailored intervention.
Akin-Jimoh said that the past projects had brought together leading stars in Nigeria’s football, music, comedy and the movie industry to work together as advocates for the fight against HIV.
Accordingly, the National HIV/AIDS Reproductive health survey 2012 PLUS II, the number of people estimated to be receiving Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) was 747,382 with 3.0 million adult populations estimated to be living with the disease as of 2014.
Society For Family Health Lagos Team Leader, Ms. Funke Adewoyin, revealed that due to Nigeria’s population size, she has the second largest HIV disease burden in the world with 3.2 million people living with HIV after South Africa which has 6.8 million burden of the disease though prevalence is stable at 3.4%.
Forging ahead with its quest, Adewoyin listed ctivities to commemorate the World Aids Day campaign to include: a press conference which would herald line-up of this year’s activities on Friday November 30 this year; flag off will be at Aboki Estate Ajah on Saturday December 1 at 11 am.
Others are: SFH will deploy counsellor testers to conduct HIV counselling and testing; a two-week long voluntary counselling and testing session which begins on Friday November 30 and ends on Saturday December 15 and a novelty Match to close out the events on Saturday, 08 December 2018 at Araromi mini stadium Gbagada.
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