Carla Bruni-Sarkozy: Ambasador Of UN Global Fund To Fight AIDS

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy: Ambasador Of UN Global Fund To Fight AIDS
By James Achanyi-Fontem, Cameroon Link
The French First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, on 1st December 2008 became the face of the fight against AIDS, as she was named an ambassador for the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Global Fund is a UN-backed swiss-based organization.
Mrs. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a former model, had highly personal reasons for accepting the task, because her older brother, Virginio Bruni Tedeschi, who was an accomplished artist died after a long battle with AIDS in 2006. The determination of the 40-year first lady to commit herself to the campaign is also believed to have hardened after a visit to South Africa in February 2008.
This tour took place, shortly after marrying French president Nicolas Sarkozy and she visited townships in Johanesburg ravaged by AIDS. South Africa is reported to have the world’s highest proportion of sufferers. It would be recalled that 20 years ago, December 1 wss chosen as World AIDS Day, to encourage solidarity with those living with HIV and to help prevent the spread of the disease and Mrs. Sarkozy is expected to heighten awareness following her being named ambassador for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.
As the first lady takes the health struggle into another phase, the question on many lips is whether current AIDS campaign work. The appeal is that AIDS campaign groups should become more involved in schools, as youths are most at risk and often more sexually active. The campaigns should be aimed at not scaring them, but to inform them.
It is difficult to see any hard hitting posters currently, although a few years ago, there were ads on the walls of colleges in Cameroon, calling on them to delay their sexual relationships or saying that, “If you had unprotected sex, then you were at risk.”
The messages were really anxiety-provoking and there is evidence that it created impact and fear at the time in people who are careful. Research showed that the HIV/AIDS public health campaign in the 1980s caused a huge increase in the number of people with HIV-related health anxiety and information campaigns are a much better idea.
There needs to be more information on the availability of moming-after preventives and on living healthy with HIV. There should be more positive information on managing the infection. There is an increasing abundance of support and health groups for people affected by HIV and AIDS in the community, but more needs to be done at the age of 13 through progressive, informal sex education..