IBADAN, NIGERIA, December 13, 2007 - Since 2002, the World Bank’s HIV/AIDS Programme Development Project I has supported Nigeria in its response to HIV.
The project, which provides $90.3 million, was designed to expand public sector response, strengthen the civil society response through the HIV/AIDS fund and build the technical capacity of project implementation units.
The HIV/AIDS component in particular has had a direct impact on many lives. One such story is that of Sola Akinpelu, a resident of Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State, Nigeria.
Akinpelu was born in Ibadan in 1968 and grew up under very challenging circumstances. He was just six months old when his parents separated and he became the unwelcome burden of an old grandmother and a bachelor uncle. He later worked long hours as a bus conductor in rough motor parks and washed cars in order to pay his school fees and survive. At the tender age of eight, while still in primary school, he began to smoke cigarettes.
Akinpelu was only 10 when he was initiated into the world of hard drugs – marijuana, heroin and cocaine.
Goodworker Movement International (GMI), a grantee of the World Bank HIV/AIDS Fund (HAF), through the Oyo State Action committee on AIDS, met Akinpelu on one of their HIV/AIDS campaigns and outreaches to drug users three years ago.
“GMI used to visit the area where my friends and I lived,” Akinpelu said. “These areas were notorious because it housed criminals and drug users. We used to share needles, women and every other thing. In that place, there were many people infected with HIV and most of those who died were women. When they died, their bodies were put in dirty sacks and dumped unceremoniously.”
Akinpelu was recruited for rehabilitation by GMI, an attempt to end18 years of drug addiction and high risk behavior. He was taken to the rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of town where he and 13 others were successfully treated.
“While we ate, they spoke to us and encouraged us to leave the unprofitable life of drugs and come for help at their centre,” he said. “They always came with a bus to take those who were interested away from the place. One day, I understood this message very clearly and knew I had to stop. This was when I joined GMI.”
During the intensive rehabilitation process, Akinpelu became a changed man and was able to put an end to his addictions.
“As we celebrate the World AIDS Day,” he said. “I see myself as one of the luckiest persons to join in this celebration of life.”
Akinpelu is now married and a staff member at GMI. He was recently appointed to supervise the project’s agricultural unit.
By Ogo-Oluwa Oluwatoyin Jagha, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, HIV/AIDS Programme Development Project, World Bank Country Office, Abuja, Nigeria
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