AHF seeks to trigger stakeholders’ attention to young girls to curb HIV/AIDS trends
A non-governmental organisation, AIDS Health-Care Foundation Nigeria, has said young women between the ages of 15 to 24 in the Sub-Saharan Africa carry the most burdens of HIV/AIDS. Speaking during a Girls ACT launch campaign held in Abuja the foundation’s clinical coordinator, Dr. Kema Anthony Onu said that the idea of a caravan campaign is […]
A non-governmental organisation, AIDS Health-Care Foundation Nigeria, has said young women between the ages of 15 to 24 in the Sub-Saharan Africa carry the most burdens of HIV/AIDS.
Speaking during a Girls ACT launch campaign held in Abuja the foundation’s clinical coordinator, Dr. Kema Anthony Onu said that the idea of a caravan campaign is about creating awareness and stimulating government interest.
“We want to replicate this every year so as to trigger government interest in young women and girls between the ages of 15 to 24, because data continually show us that this population of people are those who are continually affected by HIV/AIDS” he said.
He added that the trend is unique to sub Saharan Africa because “of the 1.7 million people infected with HIV we currently have almost 1.3 million who are females and within the ages of 15 to 24” Kema explained.
Explaining the reason for this trend Dr. Kema said;
“I think it goes beyond the anatomy of a woman because these are the same attribute women all over the world posses, so what is unique to us is that the type of social challenges these girls have.
There is nobody speaking out for them, these girls are dying in silence, these are the girls who are given out against their will to early marriages, they are most likely to have sex with someone who is older than they are and who have had multiple sexual exposures, these are girls who will not have the right or confidence to negotiate for safe sex because they cannot take hold of their sexual and reproductive rights.”
He said the Girls Act launch campaign is to give them a voice. “We want to give them a voice because if we keep being silent about this, the incidence of HIV/AIDS will continue to go high, but if we get it right with this age group we are going to change and reverse the trends of HIV in this country and not just in Nigeria but in the whole of sub Saharan Africa.”
He added that the foundation is offering them a fleet of services on HIV/AIDS, legal, sexual and reproductive services.
“We want them to understand themselves know when to say NO and know that they have the power to say NO” Kema Stressed.
The 2016 Miss health Nigeria, Rita Chinedu said that it is very important that girls know what their rights are.
She laments that the problem is that some people might know these rights and services but wouldn’t know how to access them, so outreach such as this can immensely help as it provides an amplification platform “that can let this young girls not feel as if no one is going to believe or hear them.”