World AIDS Day 2025 Tribute
From CEO, Rauni Salminen & Social Worker, Lena Soje
Today marks World AIDS Day: a time to celebrate progress, mourn the losses, and not grow weary in advocating, educating and ensuring services and supports are available for all who need them wherever they live.
Our story began in the midst of a global AIDS crisis. Young men, women and children were dying at rapid speeds, many alone due to ignorance, stigma and lack of access to supports, drugs and health care. The Philip Aziz Centre for Hospice Care began with an act of kindness expressed towards a man named Philip Aziz, who was dying of an AIDS-related illness. During what was likely the most difficult period of his life, Philip encountered Church in the City, a small community church in Toronto that offered him compassion, love, acceptance, and support. In gratitude, he bequeathed his estate to the church, asking that his gift be used to establish an organization that would help others in our city struggling beneath the burden of illness, discrimination, isolation, fear and stigma related to living with HIV/AIDS, just as this community had done for him.
Since opening its doors in 1995, Philip Aziz Centre (“PAC”) has continued this legacy of practical expressions of love, through a small professional team and hundreds of trained volunteers, whose commitment to delivering compassionate hospice care has helped to make a difficult life journey more meaningful and manageable for hundreds of clients and their loved ones.
In 2013, under the vision and leadership of its CEO, PAC further expanded its mandate to respond to the diverse needs of children with complex life-limiting conditions, as well as their families, whose needs far exceeded what PAC’s community visiting hospice programs could offer. This need for greater supports led PAC to build Toronto’s first children’s hospice residence – Emily’s House. This 10-bed hospice, named in honour of one of our courageous young clients, is designed to offer 24/7, integrated medical and psycho-social care through a team of diverse professionals and volunteers in a home-like, therapeutic environment.
Reflection below by Lena Soje, manager and Social Worker at PAC/EH.
“As we mark World AIDS Day 2025, we stand united under this year’s theme, which s on us to confront the disruptions facing the global HIV response and to reimagine how we move forward.
Today, I reflect on how far we have come and on the work that still demands our attention.
I am deeply grateful to the allies, activists, and communities, both locally and globally, who rose with courage, compassion, and conviction when the world needed it most. It was their tireless struggle during moments of fear and uncertainty that gave people living with HIV a lifeline. They fought to bring treatment, dignity, and hope when these were far from guaranteed.
Because of their efforts, we have made remarkable progress. Treatment is more accessible; research continues to break new ground; and, prevention, care, and support reach people in ways once unimaginable. These achievements have transformed and saved countless lives.
But we cannot allow progress to silence us into complacency. We are now facing growing disruptions, reduced funding, weakened community services, and rising social and legal barriers. These challenges threaten the foundation built through decades of resilience, advocacy, and community leadership.
To everyone who came before us, we honour your courage, your sacrifice, and your vision. We remember those we lost, and we carry forward the strength you left within us.
On this World AIDS Day, let us stand firm, united, and unwavering. Let us recommit ourselves to protecting the gains we have made, repairing what has been disrupted, and transforming the way HIV services are delivered so that they reach everyone who needs them.
We owe this to those who paved the way, to ourselves, and to the generations who follow. The work is not finished. Together, we can and must ensure that the promise of ending AIDS remains alive.”
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