In commemoration of the world Aids Day 2024, remembered every 1st December, annually, the Community Support and Development Initiatives (CSADI) has urged for stakeholders and policy makers to response in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDs among children in Nigeria.
The executive director of CSADI Hajiya Zainab Ahmad Suleiman while addressing people living with the disease urged them to stop the fear of stigmatization and live as every.
The executive director called for the removal of social and legal barriers that prevent people living with HIV from accessing healthcare, support, and treatment.
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The theme for World AIDS Day 2024, ‘Take the Rights Path,’ ‘My health, My Right’, which highlights the critical role of human rights in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
The executive director said ending the HIV pandemic as a threat to public health and individual well-being will require the worlds of research, healthcare, activism and policy to agree on fundamental principles.
According to her, putting people first is one such fundamental principle and we call on all actors in the HIV response to align with this approach and requires collectives responsibilities and all hands need to be on deck to achieve the set targets.
“This year we focused on children living with HIV & AIDs, women gave birth to their babies, so their child takes the disease before or during birth and during breastfeeding, but now we thanked Allah, a woman has gave birth to over ten (10) children but none of them have HIV/AIDs unlike before,” she said.
“CSADI was founded over thirty (30) years ago in the struggle and fighting HIV/AIDs, and each year we remembered those with the disease, support them, encourage them and admonished them to live just like everyone, we always assured people living with HIV takes their child for Immunization as well as adequate drugs taking. We are also producing food that is highly nutritional in nature, so that we can feed our children who are malnourish, a people living with HIV,” added the executive director.
According to her, in Kano state, the rate of stigmatization for people living with the disease has drastically reduced to about 80% due to sensitization campaign and education.
In a remark, the secretary of the Association of Women living with HIV/AIDs (ASHWAN), Kano state chapter Habiba B. Jamal said due to sensitization campaign, the number of people on drugs have significantly increased.
She expressed happiness on how women living with the disease gave birth to their children free from it, expressing optimism that in some years the disease may went into extinction.
“We are urging parents who agreed that to married their children’s to other, they should first go to hospital for medical check-up to ensure that they are all HIV negative, because stigma comes if one of child was diagnosed to be positive with the virus when wedding ceremony start,” she added.