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Community leaders, who represent internally
displaced people in Yemen’s Harad district, are meeting more frequently because
of the pressing problems brought about by inferior living conditions in the
camps. The Harad camps hold more than 130,000 people affected by Yemen’s long
civil unrest. To stay alive, camp residents walk to Saudi Arabia’s border,
hoping to find better economic opportunities. Others work at construction,
fishing, and agriculture jobs, relying on daily wages to survive. Still others
depend on the host local community to provide them with food.
Most people, however, are not aware
of their vulnerability to HIV infection, and they occasionally turn to
high-risk behaviors to meet their basic needs. Local authorities, worried about
the lack of HIV information, have joined with the Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and UNAIDS to begin an HIV awareness program for
displaced people. Dr. Majed Al Gonaid, deputy minister of health, declares, “We
know that HIV is escalating and can grow into a major epidemic—as we have seen
this happen in other countries.”
The HIV awareness program is funded
by OCHA and implemented by the local non-governmental organizations Women
Association for Sustainable Development and the For All Foundation for
Development, in partnership with the UNAIDS country coordinator. The program
will provide HIV prevention training to 20 female and male youth peer educators
from the camps and host communities. The program will include awareness-raising
classes about HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and life skills. To
eliminate the gender-based violence in addition to the stigma and
discrimination faced by camp residents, the program will conduct sensitization
sessions with community and religious leaders and local council members. The program
also will provide voluntary HIV counseling and testing service.
At the 30th UNAIDS Program
Coordinating Board in June 2012, a report on AIDS, security, and humanitarian
response highlighted that a major purpose of UNAIDS work and of its partners
and cosponsors has been mainstreaming AIDS into an overall humanitarian
intervention and integrating it as a cross-cutting issue. The report urges
governments and organizations to provide internally displaced persons and
refugees with HIV prevention services and access to antiretroviral therapy, as
well as plans addressing broader issues such as gender-based violence.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
