Civil society organizes candle light memorial for HIV/AIDS victims

Given the increasing number of HIV/AIDS patients reported dead and those affected in Cross River state, civil society organizations (CSO) and non-governmental organizations (NGO) in the state organized the first candle light memorial service for HIV/AIDS victims that died and those leaving with the disease. The event was to mark the 34th edition of the world HIV/AIDS candle light memorial.

Speaking at the occasion, the Cross River state coordinator, Civil Society for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (CISHAN), Comrade Paul Ekuma Ngwu, decried the attitude of Cross River state government toward HIV/AIDS patients, explaining that the tempo of campaign for HIV/AIDS prevention has gone down. He regretted that there was no more commitment by state government.

“You will agree that the tempo has gone down, there is no more commitment that drive that zeal on the site of the government, this shouldn’t be, government must wake up, government must take ownership on the fight of HIV/AIDS, we are aware that donor support on HIV/AIDS is winding down, it is seriously dwindling and if government does not take responsibility of people leaving with HIV/AIDS, then we are not ready to fight HIV/AIDS to finish in cross river state.”

“When we talk about HIV/AIDS free generation, how can that happen when government is not responsive, how can that happen when we are not putting all hands on deck to fight HIV/AIDS, government must understand that they owe all of us both the generation unborn, the responsibility of fighting HIV/AIDS to finish and it is on this we raise our voices to demand that government of cross river state must rise up to her responsibility as far as the HIV responds is concern.”

Comrade Ngwu demanded for the release of State Agency on the Control of HIC/AIDS (SACA)’s budget so that civil society officers can continue to carry out their responsibility.

“The fight against HIV/AIDS is not an easy one, we know what people are passing through even as we are speaking, people are still being infected, people are still being stigmatized and people are still dying as a result of HIV/AIDS and it should be wrong for everybody to assume that HIV/AIDS is almost finished.

We want government to rise up and that is our demand, we firmly make this demand.”

Also speaking, the former coordinator of CISHAN, Hon Bassey Ibor, urged people of the state to show commitment to fight HIV/AIDS, “We have to end HIV/AIDS together. Whatever we are doing, we must recognize that we should go toward ending the scourge.

Government should come in, recognizing that HIV/AIDS is a multi stake holder affair and demand a multi-stake holder approach, government hold the keys by providing the resources.”

“I want to encourage those leaving with the virus, that though you may be leaving with the virus but that doesn’t change who you are, you are still who you are, we still love you, you are still one of us, you are still part of the society, you enjoy every right that every other person enjoy and we want to lean our voices together to say that we must stop stigmatization against people leaving with HIV/AIDS.”

The event which was sponsored and supported by USAID-FUNDED, LOPIN 3 Projects and Society for Family Health (SFH)-SHIPS for MARPS Project, State Agency for the control of HIV/AIDS (SACA) and UNFPA featured goodwill messages, one minute silence and solemnization songs by civil society organizations.