KEHPCA receives the Red Ribbon Award at the AIDS 2012 Conference in Washington DC
Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association (KEHPCA) was among the ten community-based organizations that received the prestigious Red Ribbon Award for innovative response to AIDS
Ten community-based organizations, which have shown exceptional and inspiring action on AIDS were honoured with the 2012 Red Ribbon Award in a special session of the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) on 25th July 2012. The Red Ribbon Award is the world’s leading award for innovative and outstanding community work in the response to the AIDS epidemic.
Other winning organizations were from Uganda, Egypt, Haiti, India, Iran, Mexico, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and the Russian Federation. Over 1400 nominations from more than 120 countries were received by the Red Ribbon Award secretariat, which is hosted by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in partnership with other UN organizations, AIDS 2012, the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, STOP AIDS NOW!, the Global Network of Women Living with HIV/AIDS and the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations. A technical review committee of civil society representatives selected the winners. Each of the winning organizations will receive a US$10,000 grant and international recognition for their innovation and leadership and were invited to participate in AIDS 2012 in Washington D.C.
“The winners of the Red Ribbon Award 2012 have accomplished so much with so little. They work at the grassroots level in very challenging situations to ensure that vulnerable groups and people living with HIV get the information, services and opportunities they need,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé. “Communities are where the response to AIDS started and it is their energy, innovation and leadership that have set us on the course to end of AIDS.”
At the Red Ribbon Award special session the winners were congratulated by many eminent personalities including Mr. Sidibé, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, U.S. Congressman Jim McDermott, Minister of Health and Social Affairs of France, Marisol Touraine and International Coordinator and CEO GNP+, Kevin Moody.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit presented the award to the winners and said, “I am proud to give the awards to these outstanding organizations, whose actions in the communities they serve truly make a difference to people affected by HIV. The community response to HIV is at the heart of the AIDS response.”
Nobel laureate and General Secretary of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi delivered her remarks through a video. She stressed the importance of community-based organizations and said, “By strengthening the community we strengthen our chances of achieving democracy and of building up strong democratic institutions.”
The Red Ribbon Award was first presented in 2006 and since then has been handed out every two years at the International AIDS Conference. This year there were five award categories and KEHPCA was in the category of Treatment, Care and Support. Other categories were: Prevention of sexual transmission; Prevention among/by people who use drugs; Prevention of sexual transmission; Prevention among/by people who use drugs and Advocacy and human rights.
Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association is grateful for the award and would like to acknowledge the support of its partners; members; friends; donors and the community, who have been part of this journey and continue to be part of it. It is only through empowering, strengthening and education the community that the battle against AIDs will be successful.
Dr. Zipporah Ali
Executive Director.
More at: www.redribbonaward.org