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00:00Here in France, CEDAXION is a major event that started in 1994 for raising awareness and
00:05collecting funds for AIDS and for more. We can speak to Sandrine Fournier, CEDAXION's director of French programs.
00:12Hello to you, Sandrine. Thank you for speaking to Paris Direct.
00:15We saw that report from Benin. Tell us a little bit about what the situation is like here in France.
00:22Well in France,
00:24in fact, we're in a quite similar situation to Europe where
00:30certain people living with HIV are not aware of that
00:35HIV status.
00:37So I would say screenings is still a major issue in France.
00:44Also, we have observed with 5,500
00:49new diagnoses
00:52made in
00:542023, an increase among
00:58especially women, migrant women, and men having sex with men born abroad.
01:05And when you say that certain people are living
01:08without a knowledge that they have
01:11HIV-related illnesses or AIDS, does it come down to a certain demographic or lifestyle?
01:17Or is there anything we can do to identify who those people are that are vulnerable and aren't aware?
01:24Well, we pretty much know who are the most exposed
01:29population to HIV. In fact, they're quite similar all over the world.
01:34Those are men having sex with men, sex workers, trans people,
01:40drug injectors, or prisoners.
01:43And those are also the most
01:46stigmatized population.
01:49Sometimes in certain countries,
01:52criminalized
01:53population. And really, discrimination is a major obstacle to access to prevention and care.
02:01So we have a similar situation in France, in Europe, and all over the world with some differences. For instance,
02:08and as your
02:10film just showed, in Sub-Saharan Africa,
02:16girls and young women aged 15 to 24 are particularly exposed.
02:234,000 of them were infected every week in
02:282023.
02:29And some differences in Eastern Europe, where
02:35also new infections are rising,
02:38it is more in the group of drug injectors that we found
02:43this heightened
02:45population.
02:46And so much of the work that's important here, as you mentioned, is removing the stigma
02:53for certain groups that might be exposed to these
02:57illnesses. What would you like to see governments to do to help in that regard?
03:04Well, by leading campaigns
03:07against discrimination,
03:09but also, in fact, political
03:13choices make the difference. For instance, in France, since last year, we have the possibility to go to any lab
03:21to get a screening
03:23without a
03:25free screening,
03:26without the need to go to a doctor first. And that's really, really improved
03:33and increased the tests in France in
03:392003. So there are actions, very practical actions, that can be
03:45carried out to really help. We saw various reports recently that the
03:51the pandemic, the AIDS pandemic, could be ended by 2030 if there were political will to do so. Is that
04:00realistic, do you think?
04:02Well, we're not there yet.
04:04The situation is not satisfying right now.
04:09But I would say we do have the tools. Now, the
04:13issue is to make them accessible to those who need them the most, and to
04:20really strengthen
04:22community-led actions to reach the most exposed populations.
04:27So we can probably do it by 2030, but
04:32you're right, we need really political
04:37actions. Yeah, and on that note, I mean, in France, elsewhere in Europe, in the United States,
04:43we're seeing politics becoming increasingly polarized. We're seeing society more and more fractured.
04:48Does that play a role in terms of getting people the help they need and also removing the stigma?
04:55Oh, it certainly plays a role, especially, as I said before, in France, as we observe that
05:04among migrant women, we see increase in HIV diagnosis.
05:09We have those debates to
05:12to stop the medical help that French government
05:17gives to foreigners in France. So it's really,
05:21that really, really doesn't help.
05:24And for people who might
05:26want to volunteer in this field,
05:28what advice would you give to them in terms of finding a way or working with an organization that has a
05:36credible impact on this cause?
05:40We have a lot of NGOs in France, such as AID,
05:44which is the biggest one, and
05:46which really work very well with all those affected communities.
05:52In fact, I would probably recommend people to choose
05:56considering their skills and considering the
05:59community they live in, because really,
06:03as I said, we really need to strengthen community-led actions. So if you're a person living in France and coming from Africa,
06:13get contact with an African NGO,
06:17which will be really in capacity to
06:19carry out actions, prevention actions, but also rapid testing
06:25in places where African people socialize.
06:29Sandrine, thank you very much for your time and thank you for the work you're doing. Sandrine Fournier, thank you.