15/04/09

Presentation of a joint statement on the prevention strategy used to fight HIV/AIDS

From 2nd to 13th March 2009 IIMA, SDB and VIDES International participated in the 53rd Commission on the Status of Women in the United Nation Headquarters in New York presenting a joint statement.
The priority theme of the session was the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care giving in the context of HIV/AIDS.
The three non-governmental organizations presented a statement underlining the devastating impact of this disease on individuals, families and communities. The strong commitment concerns the running of health-care centres, the availability of home-based care assistance, counselling, referral services and highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) other than the organization of literacy program and the economic empowerment of women.
The continued experience of social workers especially in Sub-Saharan Africa has shown that education represents the essential mean to fight HIV/AIDS; the youth holistic support has proved to be an optimal prevention strategy, used successfully to permit them to develop a deeper self-knowledge, identity formation and healthy sexuality based on mutual respect. People that usually deal with those NGOs are victims of abuses, rapes and traffic for sexual exploitation.
The NGOs recommendations concern the guaranteeing of antiretroviral therapy availability, in accordance with the Political Declaration on the HIV/AIDS adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2006, for investing on prevention through the education, for establishing family support systems, for supporting AIDS orphans in all aspects of their development.

Statement

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.