Former presidents Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Bill Clinton of the United States will attend a ceremony on Saturday to celebrate the partnership between the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation in support of the loveLife initiative.
The ceremony will take place at the loveLife Y-Centre in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg. LoveLife is an HIV/Aids prevention project which targets the youth.
In a statement on Friday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said the two men, who co-chaired the International Aids Trust, had engaged in several events in the past to fight HIV/Aids not only in Africa, but worldwide.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation also invited a young HIV-positive activist who established the Pacific Islands Aids Foundation in June 2002.
”At the recent International Aids Conference in Spain, Mandela and Clinton shared the floor during the closing ceremony, accompanied by a young lady from French Polynesia. Maire Bopp (28) who is HIV positive exposed her story: ‘It can happen to any of us’.
”She exposed her story at the Pacific Islands News Association annual meeting with her fellow journalists and since it was the first public exposure for the region, she drew much attention to the problem in the Pacific Island.”
The foundation said Bopp would meet some of the role-players and activists participating in Africa’s ”war” against HIV/Aids.
”They will exchange ideas and hope to find solutions for dealing with common problems on fighting HIV/Aids.”
In a statement also on Friday, the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation said: ”In just three years, loveLife has grown to be the largest youth HIV prevention programme in the world and has won international recognition for its innovative approach. ”Most importantly, young South Africans are responding to loveLife with enthusiasm. But there is still a long road ahead in effectively curbing the impact of HIV infection.” – Sapa