Canceled last year due to the health crisis, nearly 4.5 million euros in pledges for the fight against AIDS were collected this weekend during this 2021 edition of Sidaction.
“Faced with the current uncertain context, with the economic difficulties encountered by many French people, we were very worried.
Despite this, the general public mobilized beyond our expectations, ”responded Sidaction's managing director, Florence Thune.
This figure is indeed close to the record collection of 2019, when 4.5 million euros in pledges had been collected.
In 2020, nearly 1.5 million euros in pledges were collected during an evening broadcast on France 2 in June, several months after the charity event was forced to cancel its fundraising weekend.
Macron calls for not "letting AIDS regain ground"
This year, the event launched Thursday evening with the broadcast of a clip on the 31 partner media was marked by an evening entitled "Merci Line" broadcast Saturday on France 2 in tribute to Line Renaud who remains at 92 years the irremovable vice-president of Sidaction, an association created in 1994.
“It was impossible for us to cancel this year because it was imperative to bring HIV out of its invisibility.
And I believe that we have succeeded in this bet, ”resumes Florence Thune.
Deploring "an alarming drop in HIV tests", the head of state Emmanuel Macron had also called not to "let AIDS regain ground" in a message broadcast Saturday on social networks.
Let's not let AIDS regain ground! For a year now, the Covid has constrained our lives, limited our movements, ...
Posted by Emmanuel Macron on Saturday March 27, 2021
"In France, in October, we had 650,000 fewer tests than what was planned at this stage, and some countries had up to 50% fewer screenings", deplores the director of Sidaction, estimating that in France nearly “24,000 people do not know their status due to lack of screening.
"
According to the latest UNAIDS report, 38 million people around the world are living with HIV and more than 12 million people are waiting for treatment, which is now life-saving.
In 2019, 1.7 million people were newly infected with HIV and 690,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses.
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These funds collected by Sidaction will go to research and care programs as well as to associative care and assistance programs for patients in France and internationally, the association said.
