…Calls for greater investment in HIV/STI prevention
From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
A Non Governmental Organization NGO, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Nigeria has called for greater investment in the prevention of HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections among adolescent girls.
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The AHF Nigeria Country Program Director (CPD), Dr. Echey Ijezie, made this call in statement signed by the organization’s Advocacy and Marketing Manager, Steve Aborishade an made available to newsmen in Makurdi on Wednesday.
According to Ijezie, globally, adolescent girls and young women face a disproportionate HIV burden.
He stated that despite progress, the numbers remain alarming adding that “Every week, 4,000 young women aged 15–24 become newly infected with HIV, with more than 3,300 of those cases in sub-Saharan Africa.
“In 2023, 1.9 million adolescent girls and young women were living with HIV, compared to 1.2 million boys and young men of the same age. Education barriers are also severe, with 133 million girls worldwide out of school, cutting off vital pathways to future independence and healthy lives.
“As such AHF calls for greater investment in HIV/STI prevention, testing, and treatment programs and supportive policies that expand access to healthcare, including sexual and reproductive health services, while addressing period poverty, promoting comprehensive sexuality education, and tackling the drivers of health inequality, such as gender-based violence and child marriage.
“At AHF Nigeria, we are particularly concerned about the challenges that young adolescent girls are faced with – lack of access to education, poor menstrual health management, gender-based violence and a lack of access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRHR) services, which puts many young girls at risk,” Ijezie said.
He said as part of events to mark the 2025 International Day of the Girl (IDG), AHF will host an educational and empowerment event to help protect girls from HIV.
He said the event would hold at Community Commercial Secondary School, Ikot Oku, Ubo, Offort, Uyo, on October 10th to honour their achievements, and reinforce the urgent need to expand opportunities for them to thrive and stay healthy.
The AHF Nigeria’s IDG event will include menstrual health management education, leadership empowerment talks, presentations by participating schools and out-of-school girls on their ideas of what girls deserves, while they organization shall honour outstanding ideas with gifts such as distribution of free sanitary pads (both reusable and disposable) and link adolescent young girls to mentoring opportunities in Akwa Ibom state.
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