The public is invited to the 2011 International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Guyana Vigil on Sunday, in front of the St George’s Cathedral in Georgetown.
According to a press release from the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), the vigil commemorates the lives lost and those affected by AIDS.
This year, the Memorial will be held under the theme, “Many Lights for Human Rights.” The Memorial’s advocacy priorities are to reduce stigma and discrimination; to ensure universal access to prevention, treatment and care; to increase resources for HIV and AIDS; and to promote greater involvement of affected and infected communities in the HIV response.
The vigil was started by the Global Health Council in 1983 and was the first public event on AIDS awareness. This is the second year that SASOD is hosting the Guyana vigil. The group said it aims to bring together communities, policy makers, health professionals, religious leaders and the public “to share messages of hope, to express sentiments in prose, poetry, dance and song, to light candles and to observe a moment of silence for those lives we have lost to AIDS.”
The vigil starts at 5pm.
