12-year-old Kenyan boy with HIV gets standing ovation at UN Aids conference
NEW YORK/UNITED NATIONS
A
12-year-old Kenyan boy with HIV received a standing ovation from
hundreds of delegates after delivering the opening remarks at a United
Nations conference on Aids on Sunday.
"We are children,
we have rights, we have a future," Elijah Zachary Lamaiyan Simel, a
student at Nyawai Academy in Nairobi, told the UN event on Ending Aids
by 2030 that was co-chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"Presidents, thank you for making the promise to end Aids by 2030. Please keep your promise," he told the leaders in attendance.
Elijah added that an essential step in combating the epidemic is to erase the stigma attached to those with HIV.
"The mother of my best friend told him not to play with me and that made me very sad," Elijah said.
President
Kenyatta responded to Elijah's remarks during his own speech to the
audience of diplomats, medical professionals and Aids activists from
around the world.
BRAVE YOUNG MAN
"Today,
young Kenyan boy has taken the lead," Mr Kenyatta said, referring to
Elijah as "a brave young man and an advocate, a champion of young people
throughout the world living with HIV."
Wearing a bow
tie and dark suit with a red HIV/Aids ribbon on his lapel, Elijah made
his comments with a smiling poise while standing beside his mother,
Evelyn Simaloi.
He said his dream is to have earned a doctorate in science by 2030, when he will be 27 years old.
Elijah
had been invited to speak at an event keyed to the Sustainable
Development Goals, which were adopted at a UN Summit meeting on Friday.
They include, among their targets, an end to the Aids epidemic globally within 15 years.
PERSONALLY COMMITTED
President
Kenyatta noted in his speech that he is "personally committed to Kenya
becoming the first country in Africa to control the Aids epidemic."
Outlining
initiatives to achieve that objective, the Kenyan leader said that
anti-retroviral medicines must continue to be available at affordable
prices.
Kenya will advocate for that outcome at the
World Trade Organisation summit which will be held in Nairobi in
December 2015, he added.
President Kenyatta noted that
as part of Kenya's efforts to combat the epidemic he recently
established an HIV situation room within the government.
It gives easy access to the status of progress in investing in HIV and health in general, the president said.
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