With the help of longtime family friend Sir Elton John, 71, who also performed at Harry andMeghan Markle‘swedding reception in May, the Duke of Sussex, 33, announced the launch of the billion-dollar MenStar Coalition project, a new network of international funders for AIDS research.
“We stand here at a moment when the progress we have fought so hard for is at risk from a dangerous complacency,”Prince Harry, who is carrying on Princess Diana’s legacy of dismantling the stigma around HIV/AIDS, told delegates at the conference on Tuesday.
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“Too many around the world are still ignoring the damaging knock-on effect on education and other community services from not prioritizing HIV prevention and treatment. This is a time when new, energetic and innovative solutions are needed more than ever before. This initiative is focused on the tough but essential work of truly changing mind-sets […] and the work to make the world’s governments play their full role in tackling the epidemic.”
The first order of business for the MenStar Coalition — which includes partner organizations like the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Johnson & Johnson and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — will be to spearhead an HIV self-testing campaign directed at young men in Kenya. The initiative is largely aimed at protecting and educating “hard-to-reach” men as a means of increasing HIV/AIDS education and growing closer to a solution.
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The International AIDS Conference is “the largest conference on any global health issue in the world” and was founded in 1985, around the time Princess Diana was working hard to quell international anxiety surrounding the epidemic.
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source: people.com
