A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Association of Positive People Living with HIV/AIDS,
has appealed to the Kaduna State Government to scale up funding for sensitisation programme on HIV for adolescents.
The Chairman of the association, Mr Aaron Sunday, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Kaduna.
He said that from the N51.2 million allocated in the 2021 budget for HIV programmes through KADSACA, only N13.9 million was earmarked for adolescent and youth population intervention in 21 local government areas of the state.
Sunday said the amount was grossly inadequate to address the scourge of the disease among young people, considering the huge population of adolescents and youths in the state.
“We are, therefore, appealing to the state government for more allocation in the 2022 budget not only to support people living with HIV but also to prevent new infection,” he said.
He added that the association was working hard to significantly reduce infections by the integration of sexual reproductive health, Gender Based Violence and HIV sensitisation.
He also said that the association was working in two local government areas to raise awareness to curb the spread of HIV among young people through a project supported by the UN Development Programme.
“We have reached out to 5,000 people in the urban areas and 1,000 at the grassroots. It is a short project and we want to see how to sustain it to make more impact.
“We are working with the State Strategy Plan to see various means at which adolescents could be reached.
“KADSACA is leading the project because they are the main body but there is still limited resources available.
“We hope that the state will consider us and allocate and ensure adequate finances for the HIV programme.” (NAN)
