CAMEROUN :: AIDS- Free Holidays 2024:Under the banner of vigilance for a conscious and healthy youth. :: CAMEROON

The national response to HIV/ AIDS has a challenge, that of guaranteeing Cameroon and therefore the world, healthy future leaders who are sufficiently aware of the issues, a priority of the Cameroonian Government. 

It is under the theme "No to deviance and moral depravity, yes to a future without HIV/ AIDS", that the 22nd edition of the "Holidays Without AIDS" campaign was launched on July 31 at the esplanade of the headquarters of Synergies Africaines in Yaoundé, Cameroon. In his speech, and following his colleague MOUNOUNA FOUTSOU, Minister of Youth and Civic Education, Dr Malachie MANAOUDA, Minister of Public Health and President of the National Committee for the Fight against AIDS, took the opportunity to thank all the actors involved in this noble approach, both nationally and internationally. He returned to this vulnerability of young people which is accentuated by deviant behaviors and which multiply these risks of infection in a more than considerable way.

He named in particular the consumption of alcohol and drugs, disobedience to parents, indiscipline, the search for virtual independence, the desire to adopt behavioral models of defiance, as many factors which plunge these young people into the category of people more than vulnerable to the risk of HIV infection (young girls).

It should be noted that, this campaign, initiated in 2003 by the Cameroonian First Lady, Mrs. Chantal Biya, intensively mobilizes young people, particularly those aged 15 to 25, throughout the national territory. The objective is to fight against HIV/ AIDS through local communication and targeted messages.

Let us recall that, the results are palpable and encouraging, but vigilance remains heightened so that the figures continue to fall and the threat is considerably controlled, for a youth conscious and responsible in good health, the said campaign ends on August 31 with the first assessments expected.