World AIDS Day – “Getting to Zero”

Bomaid, being an integral part of the national strategic vision to fight HIV/AIDS and related attitudes, joins the global community in this endeavor to educate our communities to repel its effects. As one of the pioneers, on the local backdrop, Bomaid has joined on the fight against HIV/AIDS in as far back 1998. This came about in the setting-up of the first of its kind “Special Benefit Fund under the Managed care program” in Botswana. The program, still running to date and much improved, is intended to care for HIV/AIDS positive members and their families. The members are supplied their monthly ration of ARV drugs, for those taking treatment, and with monitory of CD4 count and viral load.

As the now common cliché goes, “you are either infected or affected”, and the Bomaid family re-affirms our commitment towards ‘Getting to Zero’. If only, we could rise and combine our efforts to preserve the coming generations. There is also the challenge to realize the ‘Millennium development Goals’ and Vision 2016 – an educated and informed nation, a moral and tolerant nation, a compassionate, just and caring nation – all of which speaks of a well resourced nation state in the development of its human capital. One of the ways being in reversing the loss we suffered in many ways as a nation due to HIV/AIDS.

As we mark 30 years of AIDS, let’s be inspired by the early days of AIDS activism. AIDS has proven to be much more than an epidemic—it is a movement that has inspired people across the world. This movement is more important now than ever. The beginning of the end of AIDS is now in sight – we must get to Zero new HIV infections, Zero discrimination, and Zero AIDS-related deaths. It is our shared vision and our shared responsibility, in memory of the millions who died of AIDS but also for future generations.
“Getting to Zero” is the theme selected by the World AIDS Campaign (WAC) to commemorate this year’s World AIDS Day on 1st December. The new theme, adopted until 2015, echoes the UNAIDS vision of achieving “Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths.”
The decision to choose "Getting to Zero" as the theme came after extensive consultations among people living with HIV, health activists and civil society organizations.

"Our organization will focus on Zero AIDS Related Deaths, but the choice is there for others to pick a different zero or all three. It's time to use our imaginations and let everyone know that Getting to Zero is a must,” said World AIDS Campaign Africa Director, Linda Mafu.
It's time to use our imaginations and let everyone know that Getting to Zero is a must
Giving individual members of the society, regions, countries and constituencies the latitude to focus on one or all of the Zeros that is most relevant to their context was central to the WAC’s decision, an approach fully supported by UNAIDS. “Getting to Zero is the overall agenda for responding to HIV in the next five years, but the priority may be zero discrimination in some parts of the world and zero AIDS related deaths in some other parts—it’s important to keep this connection with the local realities” said Djibril Diallo, Director of Global Outreach at UNAIDS.

This year’s World AIDS Day is anticipated to see renewed activism from the civil society as 1st December 2011 falls only 6 months before the International AIDS Conference taking place in Washington DC. This year also marks the 30th year since AIDS was first report. World AIDS Day will be a platform to pay tribute to early advocates of the response.

Observed worldwide on 1 December since 1998, World AIDS Day is the moment of the year where millions of people come together across the globe to commemorate people who lost their lives to HIV, applaud progress made in responding to the epidemic and recommit to ending the epidemic.

View the World Aids Day Theme From 1988 to 2015...