Accra, Oct. 19, GNA – A National Heart to Heart HIV and AIDS Ambassador, Mrs Lydia Aditse Azumah, has passed on to eternity.
She died in August 2021 after a short illness and would be buried on Saturday October 23, 2021, in her hometown, Ve-Deme in the Afadzato South District of the Volta Region after a pre burial service at the GAEC Hospital, opposite the Kwabenya Police Station in Accra.
Mrs Azumah, a strong advocate against stigmatisation of children living with HIV, lived with the virus for the past 21 years before her demise.
She and her husband, Reverend John Azumah, also a person living with HIV, established an orphanage, the Motherly Love Orphanage for children living with HIV.
The couple, have four biological children who are all HIV negative.
While alive, Mrs Azumah and her husband worked with the Ghana AIDS Commission as HIV and AIDS ambassadors and spearheaded the HIV Anti stigma campaign in the country.
Through her work, she endeared herself to many as she dedicated herself to the education on HIV and AIDS to both in and out of school children, and also to women and children in churches, mosques and market places.
Together with her husband, they housed and cared for 58 children who had lost their parents through HIV and AIDS.
They provided shelter, education, medication, feeding and clothing to the children.
The Heart-to-Heart campaign is an initiative by the Ghana AIDS Commission that involved the giving of a platform to persons living with HIV to disclose their HIV status and share their experiences to educate the Ghanaian population against stigma and discrimination and also empower persons living with HIV to accept their status and be on medication and to also protect themselves and others from further HIV infection.
She travelled all over the country to help stop HIV and AIDS stigma and discrimination and to other parts of the world to advocate for Ghana to start producing its own Anti-retroviral drugs to avoid shortages and delay in supply and management of HIV in various health facilities.
Mrs Azumah was a very devoted Christian in the Hope International Ministry, located on the Spintex road, where she assisted her husband as the ‘First Lady’ of the Church and propagated the gospel of Jesus Christ, raising young men and women for the kingdom of God.
Many of her church members have described Mrs Azumah as a very kind and generous woman who always pushed for the right things to be done in the Church.
GNA