Victoria Lopyreva has been appointed as a UNAIDS Special Ambassador, tasked with highlighting HIV awareness and promoting zero discrimination during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in the Russian Federation. The announcement was made by UNAIDS in Moscow, Russian Federation, on the eve of World AIDS Day and the final draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
“It is my pleasure to accept the role as UNAIDS Special Ambassador for the 2018 FIFA World Cup,” said Ms Lopyreva. “Football is a unique global phenomenon, uniting players, teams and fans from different countries, nationalities and ages. The 2018 FIFA World Cup is a unique opportunity to promote another amazing goal—to unite a winning team to end the AIDS epidemic and reach zero discrimination.”
“UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) has a long and fruitful cooperation with UNAIDS”, said Tigran Yepoyan, UNESCO regional advisor on HIV and health education. “Our common goal is to stop AIDS epidemics that has claimed 35 million lives. We witness a huge progress in AIDS response around the world: in 2016, the number of people newly infected with HIV (1,8 million) decreased by 39% to compare with 3 million people infected in the end of 90s. At the same time, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia the number of new HIV infections has risen by 60% since 2010. This problem calls for everyday focus and out-of-the-box solutions. I am sure that the appointment of UNAIDS Special Ambassador for the 2018 FIFA World Cup will bring outstanding results on our way to “zero new infections, zero new deaths of AIDS and zero discrimination.”