Georgia and America Build on Success in Fight Against HIV/AIDS

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TBILISI, Georgia – On December 10, at 1:00 p.m., U.S. Ambassador John Bass will join First Lady Sandra Roelofs to commemorate World AIDS Day at Muza theater hall in Vake, Tbilisi, together with Minister of Education Dimitri Shashkin, Minister of Health Andria Urushadze, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Lado Vardzelashvili and Vice-Speaker of Parliament Gigi Tsereteli. The day’s events will focus on raising public awareness among youth and feature an HIV/AIDS awareness-themed photo and slogan contest.

Through events like this, as well as through the healthy lifestyle topics in the secondary school curriculum, the U.S. Government is raising awareness among youth of how HIV/AIDS is transmitted, reducing the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, and helping to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Georgia. The program, administered through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has also developed and piloted a healthy lifestyles curriculum for secondary schools that was adopted by the Ministry of Education earlier this year.

Over the past decade, the U.S. Government has dedicated more than $7 million to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Georgia. The current five-year $6 million HIV Prevention Program builds on successful disease prevention by continuing support for voluntary counseling and testing services that are delivered directly to the most at-risk populations.