Adolescents and young people in the West African countries of Togo and Benin are confronted by various obstacles in accessing sexual and reproductive health services.
At an interfaith prayer service on 7 June 2016, people from diverse faith communities issued a call to action to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Faith-based organisations presented a significant input at a United Nations civil society hearing in New York City, on 6 April 2016, a prelude to a UN High Level Meeting on HIV in New York on 8-10 June.
Sexual and reproductive health services must be not just "youth-friendly" but also “male- and female-friendly" and "youth participatory" so that young men and women gain access to the information and services they need and want, agreed adolescents who attended a workshop in Lomé, Togo..
Policymakers, programme managers, and service providers – including faith communities – must use more human rights norms and standards to guide a global response to HIV, said a statement submitted by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, an ecumenical initiative of the World Council of Churches, to the Human Rights Council.
In Africa, where up to 40 per cent of the health care facilities are provided by faith related organisations, Dr Mirfin Mpundu, executive director of the Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN), says that due to their unique position, churches can play a special role in eliminating HIV and AIDS and bringing improvements in the lives of people living with the virus.
World AIDS Day is held on 1 December each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day and the first one was held in 1988.
A fast-track approach against AIDS over the next five years will avert 21 million deaths and allow the ending of the epidemic by 2030, says the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS