WORLD AIDS DAY 2020
Every year, on 1 December, the world commemorates World AIDS Day. People around the world unite to show support for people living with and affected by HIV and to remember those who lost their lives to AIDS.
In 2020, the world’s attention has been focused by the COVID-19 pandemic on health and how pandemics affect lives and livelihoods. COVID-19 is showing once again how health is interlinked with other critical issues, such as reducing inequality, human rights, gender equality, social protection, and economic growth.
With this in mind, the theme of World AIDS Day this year is “Global solidarity, shared responsibility”.
Increased access to HIV treatment has averted around 12.1 million AIDS-related deaths since 2010. But not everyone who needs treatment has access to it and hundreds of thousands of people are still dying.
COVID-19 has demonstrated that, during a pandemic, no one is safe until everyone is safe. Leaving people behind is not an option if we are to succeed. Eliminating stigma and discrimination, putting people at the centre, and grounding our responses in human rights and gender-responsive approaches are key to ending the colliding pandemics of HIV and COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the entrenched inequalities existing in our societies. This health crisis, like many others, is hitting the poorest and the most vulnerable the hardest.
We have seen how the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the challenges faced by people living with HIV, women and girls and key populations, including in accessing life-saving health care, and how the crisis has widened the social and economic inequalities that increase the vulnerability of marginalized groups to HIV.
However, this crisis has also been a wake-up call, an opportunity to do things differently—better, and together. In many respects, the defeat of AIDS as a public health threat depends on how the world responds to COVID-19.
The leadership and engagement of communities, instrumental in the success of the AIDS response, has also been key in responding to COVID-19. We have seen countless examples of how community activism and solidarity have, once again, been paramount in providing people affected by HIV with information, services, social protection, and hope. However, such solidarity cannot be the sole responsibility of communities. Governments, donors, faith leaders, civil society and each and every one of us need to contribute to making the world a healthier place.
12.6 million people living with HIV still do not have access to treatment. HIV treatment enables people living with HIV to live long, healthy lives, & helps stop the transmission of HIV.
Global solidarity and shared responsibility
requires us to view global health responses, including the AIDS response, in a new way. It requires the world to come together to ensure that:
Health is fully financed
Governments must come together and find new ways to ensure that health care is fully funded. No one country can do it alone. Domestic and international funding for health must be increased.
Health systems are strengthened
Investments in the AIDS response in the past few decades have helped to strengthen health systems and have been supporting the COVID-19 response. But more needs to be done to further strengthen health systems and protect health-care workers.
Access is ensured
Life-saving medicines, vaccines and diagnostics must be considered as public goods. There must be global solidarity and shared responsibility to ensure that no individual, community or country is left behind in accessing life-saving health commodities.
Human rights are respected
A human rights approach applied everywhere will produce sustainable results for health. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fault lines in society and how key populations have been left behind in many parts of the world.
User fees are the most regressive form of health financing and must be abolished. Health care is a human right and should never depend on how much money a person has. This #WorldAIDSDay join the fight for the right to health for all!
Now is the moment for bold leadership for equal societies, the right to health for all and a robust and equitable global recovery. This World AIDS Day join us in calling on countries to step up their efforts to achieve healthier societies. This World AIDS Day let us demand global solidarity and shared responsibility.
How you can help
Text to donate or donate online for World AIDS Day
Text PUQZ02 to donate
You can make an instant donation of £1, £3, £5 or £10 by texting one of these numbers*
To donate £1
To donate £3
To donate £5
To donate £10
text to 70201
text to 70331
text to 70970
text to 70191
The code stays the same – PUQZ02 – just choose the number for the amount you want to donate.
You can donate a different amount online by going to our ‘World AIDS Day 2020’ donation page*
Scan this QR code with the camera app in your phone to donate by mobile*
Donate by post
You can send a cheque made payable to Mildmay Mission Hospital to:
World AIDS Day 2020Mildmay Charity Office19 Tabernacle GardensLondonE2 7DZ
Please mark your donation: ‘World AIDS Day 2020’
Why did you donate?
“To hope the hiv hospital/ Center in London can be kept open “Robert
“Good luck in your fundraising”Anonymous
“For World Aids Day”Alison
“An amazing hospital; has been for many years, even before AIDS made it’s nasty appearance, and it has gone on helping so many people “Fran
Gender inequality restricts women’s control in deciding how, when and with whom they have sex increasing their vulnerability to HIV infection.
Every week, around 5500 young women aged 15–24 years become infected with HIV.Enabling girls to complete their secondary education protects them against HIV and yields multiple social & economic outcomes for advancing health, gender equality and development.
Six-year-old Paul Ouma is an HIV orphan. For most of his life, Paul, who lives with a 10-year-old caretaker (right), has suffered considerably due to poor adherence to medication.
When Nancy Oluoch (left), a Community Health worker trained on Home and Community-Based Care by Mildmay KENYA, with funding from APHIAplus Western Project, who is responsible for the Community Unit located in Rachuonyo South District, first visited his household, Paul was in a very poor state of health.
She helped Paul access treatment and put in measures to ensure that he adhered to his medication. Paul feels much stronger now and his happy to have found new life at his young age.
Let’s hear it for Namirembe Jikaze (“Stay Determined”) Support Group, attached to Ekitale Dispensary, Bungoma South District. Mama Sarah Nyandiko, initiated the group in 2001 and since then has encouraged many others to join.
With funding from USAID through APHIA Plus Western, Mildmay KENYA sponsors the group to meet on a regular basis. When they meet, the group uses a ‘Prevention with Positives’ manual to train on HIV prevention strategies.
The group also engages in group therapy sessions, roleplays on HIV and AIDS prevention, and has started a nutritional demonstration center in the dispensary compound.
*Fundraising, payments and donations will be processed and administered by the National Funding Scheme, operating as DONATE, a charity registered in England and Wales (1149800) and Scotland (SC045106). In addition to any text donation, you will incur your standard network message charge (based on your service provider rates).
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