News
World AIDS Day is a unique moment each year when all of humanity is challenged to reflect on the way that HIV and AIDS affects us and how we can respond to the pandemic.
The international theme for this year's World AIDS Day, "Keep the Promise", focuses on accountability and is a call to to hold leaders and communities accountable to the promises they have made. This includes commitments for funding and support, health programmes and access to treatment.
The Day will be commemorated in Geneva with an international event at the UNAIDS/WHO building, an interreligious ceremony in downtown Geneva, and a torchlight parade. At the Ecumenical Centre, the ecumenical community is invited to attend:
- a presentation on "Choose to Care", an HIV-AIDS prevention, care and support programme jointly developed by the Catholic Medical Mission Board, the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation that between 2000-2005 supported 140 projects in five countries of Southern Africa;
- a briefing on the International Network of Religious Leaders Living with and Affected by HIV (INERELA+) and the role of HIV+ religious leaders as agents of advocacy, hope and change;
- a prayer service in the Ecumenical Centre chapel.
More information on these events is available from the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
