Nigerians have been urged to understand the fact that “HIV/AIDS is not a death sentence.”
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Larry Joshua, a Nigerian woman living with HIV/AIDS made this point clear as Nigeria joined the rest of the world to commemorate World AIDS Day in Abuja.
The theme for this year’s commemoration is: ‘End inequality, stop AIDS.’
Larry lost her son to HIV/AIDS in November.
“We cannot afford to fail in this awareness campaign. I know many who mocked me that I have gone for their burials. It is through this awareness that we can fight AIDS,” she said.
Augusta Akparanta Emenogu, an activist and advocate said HIV/AIDS has added complications along with other illnesses.
“I started advocacy by accident, I believe there is inequality. Many women are infected by accident, some by their spouse, husband. This same women will now be blamed for it,” she opined.
“Now that we are talking about the 16 days activity of violence against women, we find out that ordinary women can’t talk about issues of violence
Positive women can’t even say what they go through. Because they are stigmatized, I observed that women bear the shame,” Emenogu noted.
Activity
World AIDS Day is marked annually on December 1 to raise awareness over the plight of more than 1.5 million people around the world who are living with AIDS.
The aim is to inspire action to tackle the global damages of neglecting to sensitize the people and remind them of the need for going for tests, to avoid focusing on only COVID-19.
