The Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) has renewed commitment to develop sustainable partnerships to improve Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and end HIV/AIDS on the continent by 2030, as expressed during the 17th Ordinary General Assembly of OAFLA. 

The event, which was part of the 27th African Union Summit, in Kigali, was held on Monday under the theme, "Advancing Sustainable Partnerships to end Pediatric AIDS and improve Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights.”

While addressing the assembly, Rwanda’s First Lady Jeannette Kagame noted that the time is ripe for leaders to pause for a moment, and ask themselves what they must do to strengthen health systems across the continent, as well as find the most effective linkages to help them achieve the target.

"I would like to call on us all dear sisters, to consistently assess, and re-assess our commitment to this organisation, born of our duty to lend a voice to Africa’s most vulnerable populations. We must continue to invest ourselves and all possible resources, to live up to this mission,” Mrs Kagame said.

Mrs Kagame also called on First Ladies to embark on what she described as "effective public-private partnerships,” to realise the ambitious goal of 90-90-90 to end AIDS, stating that, by 2020, 90 per cent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status; 90 per cent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy; and viral suppression in 90 per cent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy.

"It is through strategic public-private partnerships, involving capacity building for healthcare professionals, and awareness-raising campaigns for prevention and treatment of HIV virus, that we saw members of our communities become agents of change and contribute to the significant 50 per cent reduction of new HIV infections since 1994,” she said.

The partnership, Mrs Kagame says, has also led to the suppression of viral load in 82 per cent of the treated population; a 78 per cent decline in AIDS-related deaths over the past 10 years, and a 98 per cent testing rate among pregnant women, and free ART for those testing positive and children under 5.

As OAFLA celebrates its 15th anniversary next year, Mrs Kagame urged her counterparts to reflect on what they have done to help them evaluate the "legacy we wish to leave behind, regardless of when we began to implement the different initiatives, in our respective countries.”

She said, over the years, the Rwandan government has implemented several programmes, to fight this epidemic worsened by the 1994 Genocide. 

"Indeed, what we have managed to do by rising up again, is to us, a symbol and testament to what Africans can accomplish and overcome, when we foster the will to work together and walk the same path towards a future of our own making,” Mrs Kagame added. 

"Some of the initiatives that made a difference in Rwanda were directly inspired from OAFLA such as ‘Treat every child as your own,’ which placed the wellbeing of every child at the centre of the community,” said Mrs Kagame. 

The African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, Dr Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko, also underscored that ending HIV/AIDS "is a prerequisite to achieving all the seven principles of AU Agenda 2063, for a prosperous, united, peaceful, secure and integrated Africa.

The meeting included testimonies by young women from Kenya, Mozambique and Rwanda, on what First Ladies can do to promote healthier communities.

Sandrine Uwisanze, a Best Performing Girl awarded by Imbuto Foundation, who is now a public health student, spoke about Rwanda’s ASRH initiatives such as peer-to-peer education, youth corners in health facilities, etc.

Joyce Amondi, from Kenya, who shared her personal experience as a young HIV-positive women, she says remains driven about her future, and is a living testimony that treatment can help fight the disease as her viral load is now undetectable.

Last year, First Ladies launched the ‘All-in’ adolescent campaign to end HIV/AIDS. Launched in Rwanda this month, the campaign also benefited from a new partnership with the Rwanda Military Hospital, Kanombe, providing voluntary medical circumcision to men aged 15 to 24 years. 

Kenyan First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, chairing this year’s OAFLA meetings, said the organisation looks forward to strengthening collaboration with the youth living with HIV/AIDS. 

"HIV/AIDS continue to be a huge concern… We need more concrete actions and advocacy to educating our youth, treatment and care among other interventions.”

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