In observance of World AIDS Day, various organizations are embarking on a road trip to several sections of the island to raise awareness of the deadly disease.
The event is expected to take place on Saturday, November 30 and is dubbed “Ride to Zero!”
It is organized by the Caribbean HIV & AIDS Alliance (CHAA), in collaboration with the National HIV and AIDS Response Programme, the Dominica Planned Parenthood Association and volunteers from a range of other organisations.
The journey will begin at 8:30 am from CHAA’s office on Kennedy Avenue in Roseau and proceed to the Dame Eugenia Charles Boulevard to travel southwards on Victoria Street.
Major stops along the way include Grandbay, Bagatelle, Fond St Jean, Delices, La Plaine, Morne Jaune, Riviere Cyrique and on to Castle Bruce, the Carib Territory and Belles and ending in Roseau, according to a release.
The objective of the activity is to heighten awareness of HIV and AIDS through prevention, education and distribution of safer sex commodities to those communities which are less frequently reached during regular interventions, CHAA said. Short skits focusing on the importance of safer sexual health practices will also be staged.
Though officially celebrated on December 1st annually, this activity will be one of the numerous events forming part of the 2013 observance in Dominica.
The theme for this year’s commemoration is ‘Getting to Zero through social justice and equality”.
Ahead of Sunday’s World AIDS Day, Sir Elton John says the HIV/AIDS epidemic could be defeated today, without a cure, if stigma and discrimination was stripped away from the virus by society.
Writing in USA today, the singer and campaigner said: “It has been 30 years since AIDS first surfaced and began decimating communities throughout America. We are now perhaps in the final stretch of the long journey toward a cure. This March, a Mississippi baby was confirmed as another person potentially cured of HIV. French researchers suggested that 14 patients appear to be functionally cured. Experts are openly debating how close we are to beating the disease.”
“Lost in this discussion, however, is a sad reality: Science has already given us the means to end this epidemic, but stigma toward those with AIDS has prevented us from doing so.”
Sir Elton added: “The reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic today is that the people who are most at risk for infection and illness have been historically denied quality health care and continue to face systematic discrimination and disenfranchisement. In other words, they are poor people, people of colour, people who are gay, lesbian or transgender, and people who use drugs.
“The science of medical treatment has progressed significantly — and yet, our attitudes toward these communities, and our treatment of them, are preventing society from implementing measures that could essentially eradicate the epidemic.”
Sir Elton concluded: “I hope and pray that science will find a cure for AIDS very soon. But more than a new medical breakthrough, we need a breakthrough in our understanding of what really drives this epidemic, and how our lack of compassion for those suffering from HIV/AIDS is making the epidemic so much wors
stop dgs we need the test especially estates
Great idea.