No Phillip Vanderhyden AIDS Walk this year

Dear Editor, This year will mark thirty years since AIDS was first detected in Guyana and indeed the country has made many strides in reducing the spread of the HIV virus in all the Regions. But alas this is a sad note on this milestone and that is for the first time in over twenty years, the Annual Phillip Vanderhyden AIDS Walk will not take place on the last Sunday in October.

At the beginning of the heavily-funded AIDS Campaign there were over thirty Non- Governmental Organizations which were directly involved in the “AIDS Fight” and Lifeline Counselling Services was one such Organization which also hosted the Annual AIDS Walk in October.

Unfortunately the NGO has little or no presence in the Guyana Civil Society landscape and hence no AIDS Walk. This is disgraceful and totally unacceptable. Where are the founders of this Organization? Some moved onto greater fields and no doubt turned their back on an institution which was a bedrock of the HIV fight. Shame!

On October 28, there will be no AIDS Walk and a Community marginalized by AIDS and related stigma and discrimination will continue to live in despair as to “who will be there for them”?

Thank you Lifeline for your fight over the years. Hope you can make a great rebound soon.

Yours faithfully,

Brian Singh