A 12-year old Kenyan boy with HIV was given a standing ovation by hundreds of delegates after delivering the opening remarks at a United Nations conference on Aids on Sunday.
Elijah Zachary Lamaiyan Simel, a student at Nyawai Academy in Nairobi, speaking at the UN event on ending Aids by 2030 said, “We are children, we have rights, we have a future.”
Young Elijah asked the presidents to keep their promise to end Aids by 2030.
He also added that another special step towards combating the epidemic is to erase the stigma attached to people living with HIV.
Elijah went ahead to give an example of how one of his friends’ mother asked him not to play with him, and this got him very sad.
Elijah said his dream is to earn a doctorate in science by 2030, at the age of 27 years.
The Kenyan boy had been invited to speak at an event to the Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted at UN Summit meeting on Friday.
