Why Nigerians must support people living with HIV – Expert
The Executive Director of the sustainable Impact and Development Initiative under the We Lead project supported by HIVOS, Ms. Elizabeth Williams, has given an insight into why Nigerians must support those living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, rather than stigmatise or discriminate them.
She made this disclosure during the Impact and Development Initiative meeting on Wednesday in Lagos, admonishing youths to impact the knowledge and skills they had gained to their peers.
While speaking further, Williams urged all relevant stakeholders, including the government, civil society organizations, academic and religious institutions, private sector organizations, parents, and media agencies, to collaborate in ensuring that everyone, particularly young women living with HIV, has access to treatment in order to achieve viral suppression.
She said, “We must all support people living with HIV and not stigmatize or discriminate against them. By doing this, we will be a step closer to the eradication of the AID pandemic by 2030 in Nigeria.
“The Sustainable Impact and Development Initiative for Adolescent and Youth is a youth-led non-governmental organization that is dedicated to advancing the sexual reproductive health and rights of adolescents and young people in urban and rural communities in Nigeria.
“Our vision is to build a society where every young person can reach their full potential free of sexual health challenges, regardless of their socio-economic status.
“We Lead is an innovative and far-reaching program that aims to strengthen the influence and position of young women whose sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRH-R) are neglected the most. It targets young women and adolescent girls who: live with HIV; identify as lesbian, bisexual, trans, or intersex (LBTI); live with a disability; and/or are affected by displacement.”
The Executive Director listed some recommendations which include implementing strategies that offer economic empowerment for persons living with HIV to purchase their medications; constant awareness on HIV/AIDS through campaigns; positive advocacy leveraging art and technology; and providing multiple areas of access to right information and services.
The recommendations provided by the participants would be populated into a policy brief that would inform policy making decisions for increased access to sexual reproductive health information and services for young women living with HIV.
Also, the participants of the training pointed out some of the learnings, “I learnt more about PREP, Pre-exposure prophylaxis and voicing out in situations of discrimination from any angle.
