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[File Image] A student displays his hands painted with messages as he poses during an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign to mark the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial, in Chandigarh, India, on May 20, 2018.
The civil society organization Treatment Action Campaign has raised concerns over the plans to shut down UNAIDS, a United Nations body that coordinates the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the possible closure, which critics say will devastate millions of lives and reverse years of progress in combating HIV.
The organisation says it has compiled data showing the severe impact that cuts to global HIV funding have already had on different communities.
The Organisation’s Project Coordinator, Ndivhuwo Rambau, says they are collaborating with various movements to engage the government as a UN member state to find solutions.
“We’ve already started documenting the major disruptions in the HIV services in South Africa following the PEPFAR cuts. We’ve already found that of the 323 facilities that we’ve monitored, 51 percent of facility staff have reported a reduced capacity after the PEPFAR disruption. So we will continue collecting this real-time data, taking it back to the National Department of Health and working together with the department to ensure that we try to fill up these gaps and we try to mitigate and try to make the impact of this disruption as big on people living with HIV.”
VIDEO | UNAIDS- Budget cuts and setbacks:
