#Candlelight memorial how to#
#Candlelight memorial full#
#Candlelight memorial professional#

As a nurse working on AIDS wards, I got to know some remarkable colleagues, because so many others were unwilling to work with these incredible people who were suffering and dying alone. I became friends with patients I had never met and eventually due to stigma around the disease, became the family, whānau, (to use New Zealand words). As a Registered Nurse, I worked in many AIDS wards around the world.

#Candlelight memorial professional#

In the early 1990’s I had the pleasure of working with some of the most amazing people I have ever come across in my professional career. On behalf of the National Party I acknowledge all those who have been affected by HIV/AIDS and extend my best wishes to everyone participating in this year’s AIDS Candlelight Memorial. Earlier this year I announced that a National-led Government would provide an extra $1million a year in funding for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation to ensure people receive the support they deserve. It’s important we ensure that support is available to those in need and I encourage people to regularly check on their loved ones. This is a particularly tough time for long term survivors as there are many parallels between the current Covid-19 pandemic and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. While it’s disappointing that this year’s memorial cannot be held in a public setting as it normally would be, I’m grateful that through technology we can still acknowledge this year’s International AIDS Candlelight Memorial in a meaningful way.

#Candlelight memorial how to#

The best memorial we can give to those who have died from this disease and to those who are living with it, is to promise that we will speak with a united voice, we will support them no matter what race, sex, or age they might be and that we will do our utmost to learn how to suppress the disease, everywhere and for good.The global events we’re currently experiencing with Covid-19 are tough and are having a profound effect on us all. When it comes to HIV/AIDS, all of humanity is learning to speak with one voice - to say that HIV/AIDS must be eliminated, to save the lives of the individuals, and in some parts of the world, whole populations, including the very old and the very young, whom the virus is presently destroying. And formerly great distances between countries and people have become very much smaller.

#Candlelight memorial full#

Yet often, it is only when we are touched personally that the full tragedy of the disease hits home. Everyone, whether in New Zealand or in the Pacific, in Europe, the Americas, in Asia or Africa is affected by HIV/AIDS. In so many other parts of the world, the progress of the disease is unchecked and terrifyingly rapid. Here in New Zealand it seems that to some degree, HIV/AIDS can be managed, even if we do not yet know for how long. It affects the rich and the poor, the male and the female, the child and the adult. You too have borne, and will continue to bear the weight of this disease.Īs we are only too painfully aware, this is not a virus that is confined to one group in society, to one sex, to one ethnic group. Equally I want to acknowledge the pain of those who loved them, and of those who have cared, and will care for them. We are here tonight, first to support those who are living with HIV/AIDS, and to recall those many millions who have now died.