KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY

HIS EXCELLENCY ALHAJI DR.YAHAYA JAMMEH A.J.J.JAMMEH
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA
AT THE LAUNCHING OF

''UNITE FOR CHILDREN, UNITE AGAINST AIDS''
CAMPAIGN

AT KAIRABA BEACH HOTEL (30TH NOVEMBER 2005)

 

Her Excellency, the Vice President of the Republic
Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly
My Lord, Chief Justice of The Gambia
Honourable Members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps
Heads of UN Agencies in The Gambia
Representatives of the Private Sector
Development Partners
Permanent Secretaries and Officials of the Government
Venerable Religious and Community Leaders
Youth Leaders
Dear Children

I greet you all in the name of the Almighty Allah.

We are today invited to launch an important compaign regarding HIV/AIDS and children. This launch could not have come at a better time, when The Gambia joins the International Community tormorrow to commemorate the World AIDS Day.

HIV/AIDS is like a torrent, rushing fast and growing stronger, and it is a torrent that must be stemmed, and stopped. The ''Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS'' campaign provides the answer. The campaign is a serious attempt to reinforce our belief that AIDS exists, and as such it is our collective responsibility to fight against it . The Campaign calls on us all to unite and pool our resources, energies and expertise together to stop the spread of the disease in line with the Millennium Development Goals that my Government is very strongly committed to.

Mr. Chairman

It is a known fact that HIV/AIDS is the biggest threat to the survival of mankind, and the sustainable development efforts of our respective countries. In short, it is the number one enemy of humankind. Children are most affected and constitute the most vulnerable groups that the disease causes untold hardships too. The Unite Against AIDS Campaign that we are gathered here to launch, recognizes the fact that children need all the protection and support to prevent them from being infected with or affected by the disease.

Today's gathering is therefore important because it brings together all those in the development arena and deeply involved in the fight against AIDS. Children are the wealth of our nation, the resources for its future. Inaction today will therefore have a devastating effect on the future of our countries.

All of us here would accept without question that the HIV/AIDS epidemic represents an unprecedented health, economic and social threat, and is undermining the gains and progresses in our development endeavours. The pandemic is depleting entire communities of their most valuable resources, wrecking families, killing able-bodied men and women in their most productive years, and leaving in its wake helpless orphans.

But merely voicing outrage and sadness is not and cannot be enough. We have to move towards more practical and meaningful solutions and create the necessary protection environment free of AIDS for all and for children in particular. It is the inalienable rights for all children, to be given this protection.

For its part, my Government is far from complacent. Much has been accomplished in our fight to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in The Gambia. I am proud that voluntary counseling and testing services are available, that prevention efforts are helping protect adults, adolescents and children from contracting the disease, and that anti-retroviral treatment is available for those who are HIV positive. But much still remains to be done. We will intensify our daily crusade against HIV/AIDS in a more forceful and concerted manner, especially to ameliorate the devastating impacts of HIV/AIDS on children. Coordination, collaboration and cooperation are therefore vital.

Mr. Chairperson

I am confident that with a more determined collective effort we shall retain this goal sooner rather than. I wish to urge all present here today to accept the challenge to seriously address the HIV/AIDS pandemic; we need to confront this scourge with all the courage, resource and energy that we can muster collectively and individually.

In so doing, we would have guaranteed one of the fundamental rights of children in the right to life.

As a Government we will ensure that children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS have all their rights to education, nutrition, and health fulfilled.

Mr. Chairperson,

I wish to commend UNICEF, UNAIDS and all other partners for taking the initiative to bring us together in this forum to continue to seek ways and means of supporting children.

On this note, I have the singular honour and privilege to officially launch the ''Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS'' global campaign in The Gambia.

May Allah the Almighty show us the solution to the AIDS Pandemic.

I thank you all for the attention.

-End-