During World Aids Day Grace & Light teams set up street stalls in Jos and Yola and tested everyone who asked.

World Aids Day on 1 December 2016 was celebrated across Nigeria. Grace & Light team members in Jos and Yola took chairs and banners and set up testing in the centre of their towns.

In Yola 176 people received confidential counselling and testing and in Jos 61 people were also counselled and tested confidentially. All were HIV negative.

Almost 80% had not been tested before. Many had heard about Grace & Light in church services but had not come forward for testing.

“Over the years we have learnt that testing is one of the most effective ways of preventing the spread of HIV. So last year we decided to offer one-to-one confidential counselling and testing rather than handing out leaflets as in previous years,” explained Tassie Ghata international coordinator.

“Many times people think they are positive and find out they are not; they then change their lives so they stay negative. People who are positive change their behaviours so they don’t spread the virus to their loved ones and so they live healthily for longer.”