Nigeria: 'Empowering HIV/Aids Positive People Will Alleviate Poverty'

Government and relevant stakeholders have been called upon to help empower people living with HIV and AIDS; as a way to alleviate poverty among the masses in Nigeria.

The call was made by the Executive Director of Ajegunle Community Project (ACP), Alhaja Roli Daniju, during a programme on stigmatisation organised by the group in Lagos.

ACP is committed to reducing social inequalities among grassroots women and girl-child, organised the one day programme, titled, 'positive living and income generation' for women living with HIV/AIDS at their secretariat.

According to Daniju, "people living with HIV/AIDS need to be cared for. They are part and parcel of the society. They are just victims of circumstances but notwithstanding what an HIV- negative person can do, they (positive) can also do even better, because they have vision, mission and are full of hope for a greater future".

She claimed stigma and discrimination is a common reaction to certain diseases such as HIV/AIDs, which make it difficult for people living with HIV to seek help. Some diseases like TB Leprosy had carried stigma and discrimination in the past.

According to Daniju, empowering HIV positive women is a way of eradicating/alleviating poverty because most of the women are being stigmatised by friends and families, with some husbands allegedly abandoning their women with children.

The programme manager of ACP, Mrs. Olusola Akai, faulted government for allegedly not including woman in their poverty alleviation programme, through provision of Keke Napep for the poor.

She said government needs to carry women along in the programme by providing cooperative society that can give out loans to women to trade, telecommunications, mobile phones on credit facility to return the money later.

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Note: For more information on the work of Ajegunle Community Project (ACP) see: http://ajegunlecommunityproject.org/