Africa-Press – Botswana. Kanye District will this year host the 38th World AIDS Day commemoration.
In preparation for the commemoration, the district will on May 18 hold the annual candlelight memorial, an event held every third Sunday of May. This was shared by the Botswana Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (BONEPWA) programme director, Mr Gasekgale Moalosi during a consultative meeting in Kanye with the AIDS Day commemoration preparatory team recently.
Mr Moalosi explained that the candlelight memorial was coordinated at the global level by the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) while locally it was coordinated by BONEPWA in partnership with the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA). He added that the event was first held in Botswana in 2008 and globally in 1983.
Mr Moalosi said the 2025 candlelight memorial, whose theme is “We Remember, We Rise and We Lead”, highlighted the need to address the stigma and self-stigma being experienced by people living with HIV. He said the three-part theme links memory, resilience and leadership with its core message being a call to nations to stand united in remembrance, in resilience, and in leadership in the quest to overcome HIV and AIDS, and their associated stigma.
Mr Moalosi said it carried forward the legacy of those who came before and shone light in the way towards a future free from HIV-related injustice and AIDS-related deaths and further renewed people’s commitment to ending stigma and discrimination. Furthermore he encouraged Batswana to rise with purpose, to remember with love, and to lead with compassion.
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