“If I hadn’t come to this project, I would still be a sex worker with no knowledge of HIV.”
But surely everyone knows about HIV by now?
If only that was true!
*Imani (not her real name) lives in Zimbabwe. She is 48 and has three children. She didn’t know anything about HIV and so didn’t know that she could protect herself from it until she came to the Shining Star project run by a local church.
There, she learnt that HIV can be passed on through sex without a condom (if the partner living with HIV is not on effective treatment); through sharing needles; and during pregnancy.
In the UK, this is extremely rare, because we have great treatment and better awareness, but that isn’t the case in many parts of the world.
World AIDS Day is not just a one-day event but a call to action for continued efforts throughout the year. This World AIDS Day is a call to action to protect everyone’s health by protecting everyone’s rights.
The upholding of everyone’s human rights is an essential underpinning of an effective HIV response.
In the UK many people take their rights for granted as (mostly) our laws and government uphold them. Many people are not so fortunate and live in places where everyone’s rights are not protected, meaning they are also not protected.
Even in the UK, some people are surprised to learn that more than 105,000 people are living with HIV. And, globally, an estimated 38 million people are still living with the virus
In fact, more than 35 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses in the last 40 years, making HIV one of the most destructive pandemics in history. (For context, COVID19 killed 227,000 in the UK and over 7 million globally).
AIDS has killed five times as many people as COVID19, yet the world literally stopped for COVID19, but there still isn’t a cure for HIV.
However, there IS excellent treatment.
If you are diagnosed in good time and take your medication regularly, you can have as long and healthy a life as anyone else, but only if you are living in a country with access to good healthcare and your human rights are supported.
Effective treatment for HIV now suppresses the virus to such low levels that it cannot harm the person with it - or those who they are having sex with - but the treatment needs to be taken daily, something which is difficult to do if you live far away from a clinic or don’t understand how important it is and also if your rights to health are not upheld.
We believe prevention is better than a cure, and so, through various initiatives and partnerships with people like YOU, we have focused heavily on educating young people about HIV and promoting healthy relationships, not only in schools, because not everyone goes to school, but in community and faith groups as well, in order to reach as many children as we can:
- Developing the Esteem programme to provide children with high-quality relationships and sex education (RSE), covering topics like self-esteem, sexual health, HIV prevention, gender equality, and staying safe online.
- Training over 700 people to be RSE educators.
- Creating a support network of independent educators and organizations across the UK, and beyond, to deliver RSE in schools and communities.
- Addressing key drivers of HIV transmission among youth, including stigma, poverty, and gender inequality.
We also partner with, and support, community lead initiatives in high-prevalence countries across Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Here, our partners:
- Train HIV awareness champions to reach hundreds of thousands of people with educational messages to keep them safe.
- Run Esteem clubs and after-school clubs and support parents and carers to talk about relationships and sex with their children.
- Focus on HIV prevention among prostitutes, and the men who use them, through peer education and skills training.
- Support women living with HIV and train community members to share health information in culturally appropriate ways.
- Train church leaders to champion HIV education and create ministries for people affected by HIV.
- Provide HIV testing, counselling, and treatment adherence support.
- Cover broader topics like antenatal care, family planning, and suicide prevention.
By combining education, community empowerment, international partnerships, and a holistic approach to health, acet UK has made substantial contributions to HIV awareness and support.
Our focus on youth education and leveraging local communities and churches has allowed us to reach vulnerable populations and address the complex factors driving HIV transmission.
We agree with this year’s theme- ‘take the rights path” - because we believe that if everyone’s rights were upheld we would not need to exist - which would be amazing and is our ultimate dream!
We’d love you to help us reach more people - why not get in touch to learn more and see how you could be involved?