International Aids candlelight memorials |22 May 2020

Event to be celebrated tomorrow during afternoon mass at Anse Aux Pins

The HIV/Aids Support Organisation (Haso), in collaboration with Father Lonnie Adrienne, will be commemorating the International Aids candlelight memorials during the afternoon mass at Anse Aux Pins parish church tomorrow, Saturday May 23, 2020, starting at 4.30pm.

The International Aids candlelight memorials which usually falls on the third Sunday of May, is a time for all of us to remember the many lives lost to Aids. It is an opportunity to honour those who dedicated their lives to helping people living and affected by HIV and continue to mobilise our communities in solidarity. The events have helped raise awareness about HIV and more importantly have helped break down stigma within communities. The candlelight memorials started in 1983 by a group of people living with HIV and since then there has been thousands of events organised around the world by community based organisations.

Haso usually celebrates this activity with a candlelight procession and have a public gathering on the specific day which this year should have been on May 17, but the COVID-19 has made it difficult for us to do that. So as the local churches started their usual function this Saturday, we have seized this opportunity to organise this activity during the mass and make it as a community mobilisation campaign to raise social consciousness about HIV Aids.

The theme for this year’s International Aids candlelight memorials is:

‘We remember - We take action - We live beyond HIV’

We remember the lives we have lost so that we can take actions that keep us safe and alive.

Contributed by Haso