Africa-Press – Angola. The “Nascer Livre para Brilhar” campaign, an initiative of the First Lady of the Republic, reduced, by the end of 2022, the vertical transmission rate of HIV-AIDS by 15 percent, against 26 percent in 2018, the year of launch from the program.
Ana Dias Lourenço also detailed that the treatment of pregnant women with HIV-AIDS in specialized hospitals rose from 54 percent (2019) to 75 percent (2021).
The approach of the First Lady of Angola was made, Sunday, on the last day of the 27th Ordinary Assembly of the Organization of African First Ladies for Development, OAFLOD, held from the 15th to the 19th of this month, in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.
This event took place on the sidelines of the 36th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union. It brought together the First Ladies of Africa, partners and other invited entities. Addressed the theme “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment – A Path to the Africa We Want”.
Projects and results
According to the First Lady, this forum made it possible to reflect on the current condition and role of women in African societies. It also made it possible to glimpse opportunities and benefits in the treatment that one wants to have between men and women, so that there is, effectively, equity and so that one can speak of gender equity.
The Covid-19 crisis and the economic crisis, he said, have substantially widened gender inequalities, especially in Africa. Women are more exposed to losing their jobs and being expelled from the labor market.
“They face barriers such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, often within their own families, trafficking in girls, sexual exploitation, early pregnancy, so-called child marriage, child labor, harmful cultural practices such as mutilation and other evils that affect our societies, and all that I referred to mainly affect women, in particular girls. And that is why at the beginning I said that I was happy that we could address this issue here in our assembly”, he declared.
The First Lady said that, personally, she has been doing advocacy work in the campaigns she carries out and calls girls as agents of change in Angolan society. To this end, she added, she has committed herself, together with the team, to the work of educating and empowering women, in particular the young girl, because she understands that this is the only way to aim for an integrated, inclusive and sustainable development.
“My work has been carried out with a lot of dedication and I consider the theme of this meeting to be transversal and that it should be dealt with at various levels and we had the opportunity here to hear, in the first part of our session, the areas to which we must pay attention in order to be able to having gender equality. We are talking about health issues, HIV AIDS”, said Ana Dias Lourenço.
Praise from Namibia
During the Congress, Namibia, which chaired the meeting, praised the role of Ana Dias Lourenço, having recognized that even in other times, while integrated in other functions, the current First Lady was already shown to be dedicated, competent and committed to the defense of women’s causes.
On that basis, he said it was time for the First Ladies to organize themselves and take advantage of their professional skills to boost the African organization.
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