West Africa AIDS Foundation (WAAF) in collaboration with Network of Association of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (NAP+) has held a World AIDS Day concert at the Alliance Francaise on Saturday.

The event which was under theme: "Universal Access and Human Rights", was the second of its kind with the first one taking place in 2005 under the theme: "Stop the stigma and know your status." WAAF hoped to make the concert an annual event.

Considering the fact that this year’s World AIDS Day which falls on December 1, is scheduled to take place at Mampong in the Eastern Region, the organisers organised this concert to keep Accra busy and also create awareness of the disease.

There were musical, cultural, drama and acrobatic displays from Dza Nyonmo Dance Essemble, Black Empire reggae band, Theatre for Change, Akwaaba Troupe, Screwface, Raquel, Macho Rapper, Trigmatic and many others.

There were HIV/AIDS patients and resource persons at the venue who also shared real life testimonies of the disease and the need for the public to care for them rather than discriminate against persons living with the disease.

Fiifi Donkor, the Information and Communications Manager of WAAF in an interview with Myjoyonline.com said this year’s theme was based on the fact that more people have access to Antiretroviral drugs than it used to be some time ago.

He said they want to create awareness and also foster unity between persons living with the disease and those without it.

“We want to create awareness for people who do not understand why people live with the virus…also to let the affected know they are not alone.”

Last year’s prevalence rate of the HIV/AIDS pandemic was 2.7 percent but now the rate has dropped to 1.7 percent.

WAAF is a non-governmental organization who gets support from Ghana Aids Commission, National Aids Control Program, UNAIDS, Canadian Cross Road Internal and may others. It focuses on educating and creating awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Fiifi Donkor encouraged Ghanaians to test and know their HIV status.

“Ghanaians should go and know their status. If you know your status, you can manage the disease rather than it killing you. It is not the HIV virus that will kill you; it is the opportunistic infections like malaria, boils and other disease that will kill you.”



Story by Aglanu Dela Ernest/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana