South Africa projects progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS on day 3 of the 21st International AIDS Conference
The 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) entered its third day, with South Africa’s young women and girls making clear their intention to play a pivotal part in any intervention meant to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Young women introduced delegates to the work being done by youth organisations to prevent through education and activism, the spread of HIV.
The highlight of the young women and girl’s session was the introduction of the ilovelife.mobi mobile application which allows young women to earn rewards based on how much knowledge they have about their sexual health, as well as staying away from blessers and focusing on their education. (Blessers is a term used to describe older men who provide monetary and other material rewards to younger females in return for sexual favours.)
South African Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi introduced “She Conquers” as the official name of the national HIV prevention campaign for girls and young women launched by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa on June 24, 2016.
The campaign aims to break the cycle of HIV transmission from older men to younger women, which has been found to be the largest source of sexual transmission of the disease.
She Conquers is a three-year campaign that focuses on HIV infections, unwanted pregnancies, school drop-out, sexual and gender-based violence, unemployment and a shortage of economic opportunities among girls and young women.
Minister Motsoaledi also announced that the campaign would be expanded to include boys and young men aged between 15 and 35.
South African Deputy Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr Buti Manamela stressed the need for working towards the National Development Plan 2030 by focusing on the development of youth and ensuring that youth are afforded the opportunity to excel in all areas of their lives.
First Lady of South Africa, Ms Thobeka Zuma urged all stakeholders to drive young women to focus on their education to break the phenomenon of blessers.
This is due to the fact that despite South Africa’s remarkable success in saving lives through the provision of free treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS, it is estimated that nearly 2 000 young women and girls between the ages of 15 and 24 are infected with HIV each week.
South African Deputy President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa also hosted Bill Gates for a courtesy call at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban. Bill Gates is one of the global funders including funding for the South African HIV programme.
Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini delivered remarks at a high-level dialogue on the linkages between child marriages and HIV/AIDS. The Minister urged women to fight the abuse of culture in sustaining patriarchy.
The Minister also called on women and organisations worldwide to address issues of economic freedom for young women and dismantle patriarchy.
The studies presented at the session underlined that 15 000 million girls are married before the age of 18 and 5000 of this girls and women acquire HIV every week because child brides are often married to older men who have had previous sexual partners and this increases the lifetime risk of HIV infection.
The day concluded with a satellite session attended by a delegation of South African Cabinet Ministers including Minister Motsoaledi, Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Mr Jeff Radebe, Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Naledi Pandor, Deputy Minister of Social Development, Henrietta Bogopane-Zulu and the Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, Mr Thabang Makwetla on the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on HIV, TB and STIs.
This is the strategic guide for the national response to HIV, TB and STIs in South Africa. This plan is developed for 5 year cycles with the current NSP coming to an end at the 31 March 2017. The focus is now on the development of the NSP for the next five years.
The South African Government delegation utilised the conference to communicate to the international community progress thus far made in pushing back the frontiers of the HIV and TB epidemic and thus improve the life-expectancy of millions of South Africans.
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