Every year, on December 1st, AIRN joins individuals, friends, communities, and colleagues around the world in commemoration of World AIDS Day, and the start of Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, World AIDS Day 2020 reminds us that support for the health and wellbeing of all individuals is more important than ever. While this unprecedented time creates challenges to our collective efforts to raise awareness of HIV and ending HIV-stigma in all its forms, it is also a powerful reminder of the need for continued advocacy and activism in working to end the HIV pandemic. Though COVID-19 continues to impact individuals and communities around the world, we issue this stark reminder: HIV and AIDS and the stigma experienced by individuals living with HIV and AIDS, has not gone away.

The theme of UNAIDS World AIDS Day 2020 is Global Solidarity, Shared Responsibility, and we urge all of you to spend this day reflecting on how your actions can impact those individuals living with HIV or AIDS. We encourage you to make use of internet-based events and campaigns in your community for an opportunity to join individuals from around the world in demonstrating a commitment to ongoing work to ending the HIV pandemic. Now more than ever, we know just how essential it is to come together in action and activism so that the actions of each individual can combine as a powerful global force in response to HIV and AIDS.