Today is World AIDS Day – an event that gives people the opportunity to unite in the worldwide fight against HIV and to remember those that have died from HIV.

Volunteers will be hitting the streets, collecting donations from the public around the country. Midland Park in Wellington will play host to a lunchtime party and drag show, supported by the Wellington Council.

The number of people in New Zealand with HIV is rising with 149 people diagnosed in 2010. Shaun Robinson, executive director of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation, predicts that around 1,800 people in New Zealand have HIV.

NZAF hopes that World AIDS Day will remind individuals to take part in safe sexual behaviour. Says Robinson, 'The key to ending the HIV epidemic is increasing rates of condom use in the communities most affected by HIV.'

For more information, visit: www.nzaf.org.nz/