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World AIDS Day is celebrated worldwide on 1 December each year. In Burundi, the day’s ceremonies at the national level took place at Bugenyuzi in Karuzi province under the global theme < “ Ending inequality. End AIDS. End pandemics”.

It is in this same context that on December 07, 2021, Service Yezu Mwiza organised, at its level, the celebration of this day in Buhonga in the province of Bujumbura. Buhonga is one of the sixteen sites where Service Yezu Mwiza mobile clinic meets its beneficiaries regularly. The activities of this day were marked by various speeches, animations of modules and exchanges and debates centred on the patient approach in the care of people living with HIV (PLHIV), sexual and reproductive health (SRH) as well as sketches performed by SYM beneficiaries on the stigmatisation of PLHIV in the community.

The Executive Director of SYM, Father Védaste NKESHIMANA, SJ in his speech indicated that in previous years, the celebration of this day took place at the headquarters of the Service Yezu Mwiza. "Today we wanted to celebrate it with you in the field in one of the sites where our mobile clinic meets the beneficiaries. We chose the site with the most beneficiaries in our active file, and it is Buhonga" he added. He concluded his speech by urging beneficiaries with detectable viral load to continue to follow the treatment correctly and those who are stable to remain so. He also placed particular emphasis on the role of parents in this care to protect children. In this way, Burundi will be able to have an HIV-free generation by 2030, as indicated by the UNAIDS objectives that our country has ratified.

According to Hamza Venant BURIKUKIYE, Legal Representative of the Collective of Associations of People Infected and Affected by HIV/AIDS (CAPES+), Service Yezu Mwiza provides comprehensive care for its beneficiaries by integrating income-generating activities into the package of services offered. This enables them to stop waiting for external aid, by encouraging them to get to work in order to meet their needs and thus leave the 'passive' stage to become actors in development. He ended his speech by calling on all those already affected by HIV to roll up their sleeves and contribute to the eradication of this disease.

Dr. Clément NIYONSABA, Director of the RAFG Activity project of FHI360, a SYM partner, thanked Service Yezu Mwiza for its involvement in HIV care, but also in the new biometric enrolment system. He highly appreciated the role played by SYM community relays in this quest and called on the public present at the ceremony to get more involved. “In our community where everyone knows each other, you know your neighbours, so you can help us in the indexed screening process to facilitate the eradication of the disease”.

The ceremony ended with the distribution of food kits to more than 130 vulnerable beneficiaries of this site, each kit was composed of 3 kilos of rice, 3 kilos of beans and 2 kilos of complete flour.