01.12.2023

December 1st: Whats up with HIV?

The red ribbon not only reminds people of the pain and anger of those affected by the desease, but also of the love and solidarity within the movement and the wider society. Photo by: Susanne Seiler, UEM

World AIDS Day has been held on 1 December every year for more than 30 years. Numerous events and campaigns are organised on this day as a sign of solidarity with people living with HIV and AIDS.

This year, the United Evangelical Mission organised an international devotion outside of the series, in which Godwin Ampony, currently at the workshop on "Trauma Healing" in Rwanda, spoke about the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic: Over 40 years have passed since 1981, when the US government published its first report on the disease that would later become known as HIV. 40 years in which activists and doctors not only developed therapies and prevention measures, but also initiated a social discourse. This has increasingly made it possible to talk about the disease and its risks, but also about normality and everyday life with HIV and AIDS.

During the devotion, the World AIDS Day working group in Wuppertal expressed its gratitude for the good cooperation and highlighted a UEM project that is being supported as part of this year's World AIDS Day: In the STAYS project "Straight Talk Among Youth in School", Indonesian activists are taking the dialogue about the disease into schools to enable an open approach.

UEM employees also show their solidarity by wearing the red ribbon on World AIDS Day.