R6 million down the drain commemorating World AIDS Day: NGO’s

The Treatment Action Campaign(TAC) has criticized the government for failing to make an impact on the lives of those living with HIV/AIDS as countries across the globe commemorated World AIDS Day.

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The organization says the government has wasted millions of rand by staging an event at a stadium instead of connecting with communities that are affected the most by HIV/AIDS.

Treatment Action Campaign’s Anele Yawa.

TAC’s Anele Yawa says government should have held a drive instead to raise more awareness about the virus.

People living with HIV/AIDS are not in the stadium, they are in our communities.

“People living with HIV/AIDS are not in the stadium, they are in our communities. It was going to be better if we had a drive, we were going to spend less money but make more impact instead of spending R6 million on a stadium that has less than two thousand people.

Positive Action Campaign in the Free State says some areas in the province continue to experience shortages of anti-retroviral drugs. [Photo: Lopez Gonzalez/Health-e-News]

Meanwhile, the Positive Action Campaign in the Free State says some areas in the province continue to experience shortages of anti-retroviral drugs.

The Organization’s General-Secretary Sello Mkhaliphi says in the past two weeks, they were at places such as Rietz, Lindley and Petrusyn.

“Those people had no medication for two months. They only got medication once we started intervening. We only know of those places, what about the other places,” he asked.