ACET Nigeria is a local NGO founded in 2006 in response to Nigeria’s high burden of HIV, with a vision of partnering with the church to improve the health and livelihoods of people living with HIV and AIDS.
This mission remains important today as a staggering 1.9 million people are living with HIV and Nigeria still has one of the highest rates of new infection in sub-Saharan Africa (UNAIDS 2019).
ACET Nigeria now works across five states in north-central Nigeria, focussing on rural regions and areas with a high HIV infection rate. They have developed a holistic model of mentoring churches to practically respond to HIV and positively shape the culture around sexual health.
Through this church and community mobilisation, ACET Nigeria reaches over 6000 children, young people, and adults annually with relationships, sex and HIV education, care, and support. Since partnering together, acet UK and ACET Nigeria have trained 2457 champions of HIV awareness and education and spread educational messages to 258, 173 people.
The ACET Nigeria team
The Executive Director, Sunday Musa, is passionate about the role of the church in turning the tide on the HIV pandemic - he has been on the leadership team of ACET Nigeria since its founding. He is supported by the wider staff team of 15 staff members and a volunteer network of over 200 Christians dedicated to positively transforming their local community.
"It has been fantastic to be part of ACET Nigeria from the distribution of the ‘AIDs and You’ book in 2006 to a strong, locally-rooted organisation that shows the love of Christ practically. We want to see children, young people, and their families having more open and honest conversations about sex." Sunday Musa
ACET Nigeria’s holistic projects:
- Comprehensive HIV intervention training - Church leaders and missionaries are equipped and inspired to champion HIV education and create ministries for people living with or affected by HIV.
- HIV education, counselling, and treatment - Vulnerable people are educated about HIV and offered free HIV testing and treatment adherence counselling.
- Community SRH and antenatal care sensitisation - Community health drives provide information on Antenatal Care (ANC), post-natal services, reproductive health and family planning.
- Esteem clubs in schools, churches, and prisons - Young people learn about healthy gender relations, self-esteem, and suicide prevention, and experience God’s love for them in a safe space.
- Kids’ clubs - At-risk children take part in recreational activities, receive Relationships and Sex Education, and have opportunities to explore the Gospel.
- Parenting support - Peer education enables parents and carers to improve the health and wellbeing of their children and strengthen family relationships.
Saying NO to child marriage
It is estimated that there are 22 million child brides in Nigeria. That’s more than double the population of London! 43% of Nigerian girls are married before they turn 18 and, in one northern state, it is much higher - 89% are married before they even turn 15.
Child marriage is driven by cultural norms, such as marrying daughters off at an early age to ensure they are virgins to retain family honour, and gender inequality - the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys. Girls are far from being equal partners within these marriages; they are forced to drop out of school; and often get pregnant when they are still children themselves. Read more.
Homework support
It might seem strange that ACET Nigeria’s club leaders also help the children with school work but consider this: UNICEF reports that 1 in every 5 of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.
Even though primary education is officially free (and compulsory!) in Nigeria, 39% of 6-11 year-olds do NOT regularly attend school. 70 percent of 10-year-olds in Nigeria cannot read well, which fuels further school dropout.
Gender inequality and the issue with child marriages mean that girls are affected the most: more than half of Nigerian girls are not in school. Read more.
Nigeria: HIV Outreach
Tens of thousands of adults and children live with HIV in the areas where ACET Nigeria operates. ACET Nigeria supports many of them with medication adherence across the five states of Kogi, Benue, Plateau, and Nasarawa.
ACET Nigeria volunteers carry out home visits with individuals who are living with HIV to help them have in date antiretroviral medication at home and to follow a regular medication regime. They discuss any issues that are preventing the individuals from adhering to the medication routine needed to keep the virus suppressed. Issues might be shame, insufficient finances to buy new medication, or low literacy levels meaning they don’t know how to take it. Read more
Challenging misconceptions in Nigeria
2022 was a year of expansion for ACET Nigeria’s Esteem clubs. The team trained 89 new volunteer educators in the Esteem programme. 31 new Esteem clubs were set up as a result, to support teenagers in building healthy self-esteem, positive relationships, and good sexual health. This means that there are now 49 Esteem clubs in total, reaching nearly 1500 young people. Read more
Tackling inequalities: making a difference to the HIV landscape in Nigeria
It’s our 35th anniversary next year! It was in 1987 that our founder, Dr Patrick Dixon, working as a cancer doctor in the UK, could see very clearly the inequalities that people living with HIV and AIDS were facing in hospitals at the time.
These inequalities were fuelled by ignorance, fear, and stigma, even amongst the medical community. Patrick felt stirred by God and was so moved by compassion that he decided to do something about these inequalities. He wrote a book called The Truth About AIDS and our charity, ACET, was officially born in 1988! Read more
PMTCT of HIV in Nigeria
The prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) is an important part of HIV prevention and education work. 21,938 Nigerian children under 5 were infected in 2019 during pregnancy, birth or during breastfeeding. This is about 25% of the mother-to-child transmission taking place globally.
One of the contributing factors is that only 35% of pregnant Nigerian women living with HIV are on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. Read more
Nigeria - reaching the most vulnerable
During 2022, ACET Nigeria has been expanding its relationships and sex education program, training teams at children's homes to run Esteem Clubs for the young people in their care.
An expansion of their successful, tested model of running Esteem Clubs for teenagers in schools and churches, the project aims to reach the most vulnerable children in society, those who have lost their parents and communities. Read more
Nigeria - homework support
As well as their Esteem Clubs for older children, ACET Nigeria trains and supports volunteers to run Children’s Clubs for those between the ages of 5 and 12.
16 new Children’s Clubs were formed in the latter half of 2021, adding to the existing 40 clubs, expanding this outreach in underserved, rural areas considerably, enabling ACET to now reach 1,688 children.Read more