Dili, 20 April 2026 (Media Democracia) – The National Institute for Combating HIV-AIDS (INCSIDA) held the final day of training for youth from the KHUNTO party on how to prevent transmission of the HIV/AIDS virus, a disease that is very dangerous and can take a person’s life.
According to INCSIDA President Daniel Marçal, this awareness training for all party youth is important because political parties are the ones that will make the best contribution to the nation’s development when a party wins and when a party governs, they need people who are in good health, with good mentality and good thinking.
“I have also met with the President of the Republic and said that this is a national concern, not just one group but it is not about parties. INCSIDA has all colors inside, but we do not look at party interests, we look at national interests, meaning national interests exist within all parties. That is why the President is concerned, the Prime Minister is also concerned to carry out maximum activities using all means requires money so we can do the activities well. Therefore we ask the government to invest money so we can carry out these activities to the maximum and intensively to cover our citizens.” said INCSIDA President Daniel, 17/04/2026.
He added that in this awareness program, each invitation targets 250 people but sometimes 300 come, and today is the final day for the KHUNTO party. Over these five days, many have already tested, but reagents are low. Everyone wants to test but reagents are limited, so coordination is now underway with the Ministry of Health to prepare reagents because now many people are voluntarily coming to test. If we don’t test blood, people won’t know they have HIV, won’t get treatment, and many people could lose their lives.
“We haven’t been preparing reagents ourselves we request them from the Ministry of Health. That’s why we are thinking of approaching the finance department, authorities, and the Prime Minister so that maybe next year INCSIDA can also have reagents, but still request from the health side. This concern is valid and good because if next year there are other concerns, the ministry agrees to also allocate a budget to buy reagents so we can do our own testing.” he said.
At the same event, Supreme Leader of the Kmanek Haburas Unidade Nasionál Timor Oan (KHUNTO) Party, José dos Santos ‘Naimori’, said he is proud of INCSIDA’s program which has been conducting awareness in the municipalities and also in the capital Dili.
“I thank INCSIDA for this activity, especially President Daniel Marçal and his team who run this program for all Timorese. We all need to participate so that we can take good care of the health of all our youth. We see that HIV/AIDS cases in Timor-Leste are almost 202. How can we treat and eliminate this virus? From here, I myself continue to ask the state to allocate funds to control it in all municipalities, not just in Dili but municipalities, posts, villages and hamlets so we can get early prevention for this disease. So how can we Timorese contribute together, not just for the KHUNTO party but for all Timorese, especially our youth, it’s better to go to health services so we can quickly check ourselves to know our HIV/AIDS status, so it doesn’t sprea.” said KHUNTO Party’s José dos Santos ‘Naimori’, 17/04/2026.
He affirmed that KHUNTO Party youth are all ready to contribute so they can prevent themselves early from this disease because this is a plan to secure our youth in Timor-Leste.
“I want to inform the state, and also look at security, especially at the border because everything comes through the border. So how can the state create good conditions to address this virus quickly, otherwise it can spread to everyone. Therefore we must intervene quickly in something with conditions that can destroy youth. To prevent, first we must create conditions. I ask the state to allocate funds to INCSIDA so it can quickly control it in posts and villages throughout Timor-Leste.” he said.
He stressed that youth must prepare themselves to liberate this people in good health. The new generation for this nation needs health to be able to take the nation forward. Even if we are smart but our health condition is not good, then when can we take the nation forward, so we also need to cooperate with health services to detect diseases we may have.
Report By: Trainees Baquita and Juliana
Photo By: Trainee Juliana