There are some damning statistics coming out of the United Nations which reveal that in developing countries worldwide, only 31 percent of young men and 19 percent of young women have correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS.
The lack of a comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) for young people, in all schools, is said to be one of the contributing factors for the increasing rate of HIV/AIDS cases amongst the 15-24 year old population.
Today more than 30 representatives of civil societies were putting their heads together at an advocacy workshop held at the Radisson Hotel. The group is working together to make progress on a number of Millennium Development Goals including scaling-up access to antiretroviral drugs for People Living With Aids…..
Rodel Beltran Perera
"We are a part advocating for these millennium development goals; there is 3 of them that do concern us as an agency responding to HIV, but we have synergies between HIV/AIDS issues and sexual and reproductive health and these include maternal and child health as well as the inequities amongst gender. Millennium Development Goal is number three and that has to do with gender inequities. Number five has to do with maternal and child health as well as number six has to do with HIV. They all are inter-related, inter-twined, they are interconnected and so today's activity is to bring together our civil societies agencies in asking them to come up with advocacy strategies to ensure that our MDGs 3,5 and 6 are met by all those commitments globally. Alliance Against AIDS is now a partner agency of this global project called "Strategies from the South". Strategies from the South reaches out civil society in these countries to ensure that they put together advocacy strategies to see that these develop MDGs are accomplished that have been committed by our governments that governments have committed to ensure that they happen and so our role as civil society organizations, some 30 of us are here today to put together strategies to ensure that it does happen."
Some of the civil societies attending today's workshop included the National Women's Commission, WIN, and the National Aids Commission.
