WORD AIDS DAY STATEMENT

By President of Positive Action Foundation Philippines

Joshua T. Formentera

On 1 December, we mark the 25th anniversary of World AIDS Day, an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made this year as well as support the efforts to tackle the HIV epidemic in the Philippines and around the world.

The global theme of World Aids Day 2013 is Shared Responsibility: Strengthening Results for an AIDS-Free Generation. We could not have chosen a more appropriate theme for the Philippines. During the last years we have seen a worrying trend in the infection rate of young people in the Philippines. This underlines the need to double our efforts at ensuring the aim of an AIDS-free generation. The work that has been done in the past has gone a long way in helping earlier generations, but now is the time to focus on the young generation. PAFPI urges the Philippine government agencies to use interventions, which have proven successful with view to prevention and harm reduction. We have to attack this problem as a collective effort where we all need to pull in the same direction. The national and the local level must become better at cooperating. The government and civil society should prioritize the work in this direction. PAFPI is vigorously committed to uphold its strong and continued leadership in confronting health inequalities for people living with HIV/AIDS and affected families.

Moreover, Positive Action Foundation Philippines, Inc. is committed to the elimination of barriers of discrimination, stigma and exclusion in the achievement of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support. PAFPI reaffirms its commitment to collective action to promote human rights and rights-based approaches to address HIV/AIDS in the Philippines.