Daily Graphic, Pg 3, Tues. Dec. 02/08
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho & MacLiberty Misrowoda
MORE than 300,000 Ghanaians are said to be living with HIV and AIDS, the Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Prof Sakyi Awuku Amoa, has said.
Prof Amoa said the fight against HIV and AIDS has become the responsibility of the general public, and called for leaders in the country to fight the stigma associated with it.
“The individuals living with the disease can no longer fight alone, we must all get involved,” he added.
Prof Amoa was speaking at the 20th World AIDS Day durbar held in Accra on the theme ”Leadership Reducing Stigma and Discrimination”.
According to him, through the efforts of the commission people living with AIDS were now able to come out to declare their status, a development which, he said, was not the case some few years ago.
“There are more than 500 associations of people living with AIDS in the country, and this has tremendously reduced the challenges associated with stigmatisation,” he said.
The Presidential Adviser on HIV and AIDS, Prof Fred T. Sai, said the theme for last year’s AIDS Day had been maintained this year because it continued to be relevant in the fight against HIV and AIDS in the country.
Prof Sai said the theme threw a challenge to all, not only high office holders and leaders on HIV and AIDS issues, but also leaders in the family, communities and social groups and associations in the country.
“Leadership by personal example is particularly needed in working towards reducing stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV,” he added.
Prof Sai emphasised that the theme challenged all sections of society to demonstrate in the churches and mosques, in the ministries, in Parliament and in schools the need to avoid the disease.
“We need to remind ourselves that being silent about AIDS is not the best way to sustain the drive and momentum that a fight against such an epidemic requires”.
He acknowledged the important financial support and technical assistance given over the years by development partners but was quick to add that more could be done.
The US Ambassador, H. E. Donald G. Teitelbaum, said the number of people living with HIV and AIDS in Ghana was enough to fill the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi five times, adding that every one of them were persons with name, face and life.
He said that the task ahead of Ghanaians in fighting HIV and AIDS was enormous and needed leadership to accelerate it.
“Today is World AIDS Day, but to defeat AIDS, we must focus on AIDS every day of the year; only then can we hope to stop people from becoming infected.
A book on the voice of women in Northen Ghana, titled “Violence and HIV and AIDS: The Interface”, was launched.
Launching the book, the Country Director, Action AID Ghana, Ms Adwoa Kwateng Kluvitse, called on the government to make provision for the economic empowerment of women in the national budget as a way of reducing the number of women who were forced into survival sex.
The Management of Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) yesterday organised a Voluntary Counselling and Testing programme for its staff and their dependants as part of this year’s celebration of World AIDS Day.
The programme, which was preceded with a two-day training of trainers workshop for some staff members, was aimed at encouraging staff of the company to know their HIV status.
According to the 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic released in July, it is estimated that 250,000 people were living with HIV and AIDS as at the end of 2007 in Ghana.
Around that same period, it further estimated that 1.9 per cent of adults aged 15-49 in Ghana were living with HIV and AIDS and out of this number an estimated 60 per cent of the cases occurred among women.
Also, it further estimated that 17,000 children aged 0-15 were living with HIV and as at the end of 2007, an estimated 21,000 people had died from AIDS in the country.
It is in the light of this statistics that the Resident Doctor of the GCGL, Dr Aidoo?????????, said the company deemed it necessary to introduce its staff to VCT, since the issue of HIV and AIDS affected all.
He said the company, in July this year, organised the first of such programmes and according to him, over 70 staff members took part in the exercise and he hoped that this time around more staff members and their dependants would take part in the VCT exercise.
He said it was prudent that the company educated its staff so that it did not spend more funds on treatment when they contracted the virus out of ignorance.
He said the company was in the process of finalising a workplace policy to protect its staff, especially from stigmatisation.
“HIV is real, people sometimes think it is far off,” Dr Aidoo said and advised that there was the need for awareness to be created so that people would realise that they could not just go to bed with anybody at all and walk away free.
“Treatment is available, so people should not shy away from knowing their HIV status,” he advised. The Programme Director of the Ghana Business Coalition Against HIV and AIDS (GBCA), Dr Derrick Nii Armah Aryee, said the group, with technical support from the German Technical Corporation, provided voluntary counselling and testing to organisations and institutions.
He said the group, of which the GCGL is a member, was made up of 26 organisations and a member of the Pan-African Network of Business Coalition.
Assisted by the Programmes Officer of the GBCA, Dr Adraiana Ignea, who is from the Chartered Institute of Makerting and GTZ, Dr Aryee said the coalition had assisted some of its members to draft workplace policies and organise fora for members to upgrade their knowledge on current happenings concerning HIV and AIDS.
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