Facebook
As part of the activities planned out for YAG for the month of January, a video screening exercise on HIV/AIDS was scheduled to be shot at the universities surrounding the FCT, starting with the University of Abuja. The video screening exercise was aimed at sharing a video and the challenges faced by young people living with the virus, mostly because the stigma leveled against young people and people infected and living with the virus has become a thing of great concern for most organizations working with HIV/AIDS.
Though the event started a bit late due to a clash in the timing with another event, the turn out was so great, as there was about 200 students present. The video that was shown was about a HIV positive youth, named Gloria, who has been discriminated against, both by her parents and the community just because she was diagnosed to be with the virus.
The community acted by refusing her admission into the university just because she was positive, and her parents I think has been in denial of the fact that she is positive, and to them, the best way to react is by total denial to their child not minding the psychological, social and mental effects.
What was so interesting about the whole event was the number of students and the level of young people’s interest in what we had to offer and say, and the roles they in turn could play in reducing the level of stigmatization leveled out to HIV positive persons. Also, defenses were been made against and for discrimination, as a student stood up to defend the issue of Gloria’s refusal into the university, which to him apparently is a good thing for other young people in the universities who engage in sexual escapades, but in defense of the issue another student stood up and defended it saying it should not be done, since we are to be empathic towards people living with the virus.
At the end, condoms were been distributed to the students, and signatures were gotten of young people in favor of the anti-stigmatization bill, which sits in the National Assembly, waiting to be passed into law.
Let’s stop stigmatization, and love persons with HIV, it heals faster.
No Comments.
[Add New Comment]