Botswana: At a gala dinner at GICC this week, First Lady Neo Jane Masisi was honoured and celebrated as the UNAIDS Champion for the Empowerment and Engagement of Adolescent Girls and Young Women.
The journey started in 2019 when the First Lady became UNAIDS’ special ambassador for the engagement and empowerment of adolescents and young women in Botswana.
This year, the First Lady was honoured and appointed as UNAIDS Champion for engaging and empowering adolescents and young women. She was appointed in September at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
When giving an address, Neo Jane Masisi said she is proud about her appointment as UNAIDS Champion, which is geared towards making a great impact on the lives of the most important segment of the world population, being adolescents and young women.”
“I consider this recognition as a trusteeship mission to achieve a given set of objectives, in particular striving towards achieving the worldwide target of ending AIDS by 2030″, she said.
She added that the recognition is a testament to Botswana’s hard work and commitment to fighting HIV & AIDS. “Botswana’s achievement is admirable, having been awarded WHO Silver tire status besides surpassing the world target of 95-95-95”.
Masisi added that HIV/AIDS incident rates in adolescent girls and young women remain a big concern, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. “AGYW accounted for more than 77% percent of new infections among young people aged between 15 and 24 years in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Every week, 4,000 adolescent girls and young women became infected with HIV globally in 2020. 3100 of these cases were from Sub-Saharan Africa,” She quoted.
The First Lady stressed the need for urgency in dealing with the HIV care management system. She further said in her new role, she will continue to work with young people in enabling a safe environment by organizing dialogues on behavioural changes about activities fueling new infections.
When giving a vote of thanks, Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare said recognizing and celebrating Her Excellency’s appointment serves as a positive feedback and vote of confidence for her performance in the previous role which she delivered accordingly.