Ending HIV/AIDS by 2030 – UNAIDS, StarTimes sign agreement
Smart grab:
Digital TV operator, StarTimes Communication Network Technology Group and UNAIDS have formally established a partnership to reduce the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Beijing.
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| UNAIDS Executive Director, Mr Michel Sidibé and StarTimes President, Mr Pang exchange documents after signing. |
By
Edmund Smith-Asante, BEIJING
UNAIDS, the United Nations agency responsible for
the control of HIV/AIDS and the StarTimes Communication Network Technology
Group have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to stop the spread of the
epidemic by 2030.
According to the agreement signed in Beijing, StarTimes
and UNAIDS would work together
to increase awareness of HIV and to reduce stigmatisation and discrimination of
people living with HIV and those whose lives are affected by HIV in countries
covered by the broadcast networks of StarTimes in Africa.
MoU benefits
The UNAIDS Executive Director and
Under-Secretary-General of the UN, Mr. Michel Sidibé who signed on behalf of
the UN agency said “Your (StarTimes) network will be able to reach
millions of Africans with information which will help us not just to give pills
to people but will be able to restore the dignity of those people because their
human rights will be respected.”
He also noted that the agreement would “enable
people to have the knowledge and information to protect themselves and then we
can really control the epidemic – and it is possible.”
Sounding excited about the deal, he said from a
very hopeless situation about a decade ago, 12 million people now in Africa and
18 million in the world had access to HIV treatment and the world was close to
eliminating transmission from mother to child and having babies born without
HIV.
“But with all those success stories it is not over.
If we want to win against this epidemic we need to double our efforts. We need
to work with people who are communicating with people every day to make sure
that we mobilise you,” he said.
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| Mr. Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director and Mr. Pang Xinxing, StarTimes President addressing the media after the signing ceremony. |
Signing on behalf of the StarTimes Group, its President
Mr. Pang Xinxing said: “AIDS is the public enemy of all mankind and we are honoured
to work together with UNAIDS to shoulder the mission of fighting AIDS.”
He stated that the first step to end AIDS was to
enhance the awareness of HIV and StarTimes, as an influential digital TV
operator, would help to let more people know about HIV and how it was
transmitted.
Mr. Pang said the agreement was very important, as
the media was the major channel to communicate information and increase
knowledge.
Citing the 2016 AIDS Prevention Report, he said two
thirds of young people did not have knowledge about AIDS, which showed that
AIDS publicity and education, especially in South Africa where it was a big
challenge, was the foundation to fight AIDS.
Road to collaboration
The MoU is not the first collaboration between
UNAIDS and StarTimes. On December 1, 2016, which was commemorated globally as World
AIDS Day, StarTimes and UNAIDS worked together to reach millions of people in
Africa with two short video messages that promote the life-cycle approach to
HIV prevention and finding HIV solutions for everyone, at every stage of life.
The current collaboration to reduce the impact of
HIV in Africa began from July 27, 2016 when Mr Sidibé paid a visit to StarTimes.
It was from then that the two sides started discussions on exploring opportunities
for collaboration.
This
story was written on May 19, 2017
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