HIV awareness campaigner among TOYP of the World nominees

A Filipino advocate for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) awareness campaign is nominated as one of the “Ten Outstanding Young People of the World 2018” along with a Filipino political analyst.

Ronivin Pagtakhan, founder and chief executive officer of the LoveYourself Inc., said that he is chosen as one of the 20 finalists for the TOYP along with political analyst Richard Heydarian.

The LoveYourself Inc. is a non-government organization that provides free HIV testing and treatment to all people from all walks of life in three of its different branches in the metropolis.

In his Facebook account, Pagtakhan urged the Filipino people to vote for him by liking his photo with his short description and his advocacy by visiting the organization’s official website https://toyp.jci.cc.

Pagtakhan, a nurse and an educator, has founded the LoveYourself Inc. a few months after he noticed that most netizens are asking him about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in one of his twitter interactions in 2011.

Aside from helping persons living with HIV, Pagtakhan also empowers the LGBT community, youth and the Filipino people “to recognize their own value and self-worth,” among other causes.

Pagtakhan and Heydarian are among the awardees of the “Ten Outstanding Young Men” of the Philippines in 2016.