Mrs. Theresa Kufuor, First Lady on Wednesday said an effective way to check the spread of HIV/AIDS would be to equip women with employable skills to make them economically independent.
"Part of the reason for the rapid spread of the disease has to do with the men-dominated nature of our economy," she said.
Mrs Kufuor made the observation when addressing the opening session of an HIV/AIDS Sensitization Forum for Women in Bolgatanga.
The forum was organized as part of her two-day working visit with Hajia Ramatu Mahama, wife of Vice President Aliu Mahama, to the Upper East Region.
Mrs Kufuor noted that since the AIDS pandemic was affecting the society “We should deal with it. Stigmatisation and discrimination would not help anyone. It would only drive those infected underground and make it difficult for them to come out openly to seek help."
Hajia Mahama urged women in the region to cultivate the virtue of sharing and being supportive of persons living with AIDS.
She appealed to families of AIDS victims not to shun them but show them love and kindness.
"No one deliberately becomes sick. Let us treat persons living with AIDS with dignity, because they are human beings like us," she added.
Mr Boniface Gambila, Upper East Regional Minister, said in spite of efforts to suppress it, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the region continued to increase from 47 in 1989 to 4,929 by the end of June 2006.
He announced that an ante-retroviral treatment centre has been established at Bolgatanga Government Hospital and another to be established at Bawku Hospital as part of measures to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in the region.
Mr Gambila observed that major issues to be addressed nationwide on the crusade against AIDS were the questions of stigmatization and behavioural change.
To this end, he said the Upper East Regional AIDS Commission had planned some activities on behavioural change communication towards this year's World AIDS Day celebration.
Ms Victoria Aziriba, staff of Bolgatanga Hospital, making a presentation on HIV/AIDS, urged residents to take advantage of the voluntary testing and counselling services at the hospital to enable them know their HIV status to live careful and disciplined lives.
"When you test positive it should not be a problem. Hypertension and diabetes like AIDS have no cure," She added. Ms Lamisi Amoh, a young woman living with HIV/AIDS stunned the forum with her experiences as an HIV victim.
"When the man with AIDS dies, it is the widow and orphans who suffer the burden of HIV/AIDS," she said.
She expressed appreciation to Government for assisting AIDS patients in the region with ante-retroviral treatment and appealed to Government to provide free meals daily for patients who visited the centre due to their poor financial status.
Mrs Kufuor and Hajia Mahama later inspected an exhibition of straw baskets and smocks produced by a group of widows living with HIV/AIDS and donated quantities of straw and dye materials estimated at about four million cedis to the group.
They also paid courtesy call on the Bolga Naba, Martin Abilba III at his palace.
Naba Abilba commended them for their immense contribution to national development and promoting the health of women and children in the country.
GNA
No comments:
Post a Comment