On December 1, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the Georgian Youth Development and Education Association (GYDEA), in partnership with the Georgian University (GU) marked World AIDS Day. The organizations did so by organizing an awareness-raising event on HIV/AIDS-related stigma, discrimination and ways of prevention. In partnership with Georgian AIDS and the Clinical Immunology Research Center, UNFPA and UN Women developed a public service announcement, promoting free of charge HIV counseling and testing services, to increase demand for these services among the youth and women ( video can be viewed on youtube channel)
December 1 was first marked as World AIDS Day in 1988, to globally unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with the infection and to commemorate those who have died. Georgia currently belongs to the group of HIV/AIDS low prevalence countries (by 2015 there had been 5,328 registered cases of HIV, the majority of whom belong to the 29-40 age group). UNFPA and UN Women focus on promoting free HIV testing and counseling for youth and women, as part of an effort to support the development of integrated HIV, sexual and reproductive health services and to support HIV prevention with the aim of ending AIDS by 2030.
