“No HIV stigma” became the motto of 2019 for Life4me+

Today, Life4me+ published its annual progress report for 2019. The long delay has been due to the unfolding coronavirus pandemic that swept the world over the past twelve months.

Throughout 2020, Life4me+ employees and volunteers have been working, covering events around the pandemic, and providing assistance to people living with HIV who are stuck abroad without a stock of HIV antiretrovirals. These activities will be detailed in the 2020 report.

In the meantime, let’s go back to 2019.

About us

The history of Life4me+ dates back to 2013 when a group of activist began writing news articles about HIV and sharing this information through social networks. The initiative later developed into a fully-fledged website with an up-to-date news agenda, and the group formed a civic organisation to continue its work around the world.

Life4me+ is committed to preventing new infections of HIV, Hepatitis C, Tuberculosis and other sexually transmitted infections. We also are working to expand access to treatment, providing support for people living with HIV, and fighting stigma and discrimination.

2019 achievements

2019 was a bright year for the organisation, filled with events and fruitful projects. Life4me+ has been able to expand its geographical reach beyond the countries of the WHO European Region. Partnership agreements have been established in 21 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, South Africa, and Lesotho. Along with expanding the geographical area of our work our vocabulary has also increased – Life4me+’s website and mobile application are now available in more languages than ever.

Compared to 2018, website traffic for Life4me.plus has doubled – this is despite fewer news articles being published in the same period. The reach of our social media audiences also increased – to 1.5 million.

The key event of 2019 for was our NoHIVstigma campaign. It started on the eve of the European AIDS Conference, EACS2019, and subsequently gained immense popularities in the countries of the WHO European region and around the world. The central event of the campaign was a peaceful march through the streets of the Swiss city of Basel, during which we all said to together “NO STIGMA TO HIV”.

Conclusion

Life4me+ expresses its gratitude to the members of the organisation, and to our volunteers and specialists, without whom it would be impossible to achieve our goals. We would also like to express our thanks to our partners and fellow activists for their support and co-operation.

The Life4me+ team will continue to develop HIV education and awareness campaigns to reach as many people as possible.

You can download and read the full report here: https://life4me.plus/bundles/hivresources/pdf/annual/Annual-Report-2019-Life4me+.pdf