The December 1 marked the commemoration of the 25th annual World Aids Day.
This day requires that all people from all walks of life, unite and support those who live with HIV/Aids, and also to unite and celebrate the victories in the fight against the scourge so far. It is an undisputable fact that this disease affects all of us.
According to the United Nations, more than 30 million people worldwide have died
from HIV and related illnesses, and about
50 million live with the disease.
I pose a challenge to all young people, that we make each minute a World Aids minute. In this way, we will be sure to note and exercise the necessary precaution to fight this scourge each and every day.
This is December, a month we have branded as for family, fun, drinking alcohol, and so on. Among the youth culture December is characterised by drinking, trips and other regrettable behaviour. This does not suggest that HIV is only contracted only December, but this article aims to remind young people that December is only one of 12 months of the year and that whatever we do during this month, should not seek to undermine our year’s work.
HIV is real, and I have heard many of my peers say in a very simplistic manner how they will take treatment and continue to live happily ever after.
Much as we know that HIV can be treated and much as it is said that a positive attitude makes coping easy, how one gets to that positivity level where they finally accept, should not be ignored. HIV is a very sensitive matter and controversial as I may sound, I still maintain that if we desensitise the subject further than needs be, we run a risk of having people becoming negligent.
I will be happy to see every sexually active young person carrying a condom in their wallet. We need a generation of young people who will be condemning their peers for not having a condom.
A condom should be like a bag accessory, women should not feel embarrassed for carrying condoms. Just like we always carry lip gloss and sanitary towels in our handbags, we should also make condoms part of our bag accessories.
It is also critical that we start meditating on issues of morality and our sexual behaviour as young men and women. We need to refuse to be the generation that will be recorded as having had the most HIV infection rates, especially through sexual transmission.
