Tamara spearheads AIDS campaign

Saturday, October 9, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 47)

By Rebecca Kwei
When Tamara Aku Dzormeku won the Miss Malaika crown in 2008, one of her task was to be a malaria youth ambassador working in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Programme.
Two years on, having successfully embarked on malaria education in various parts of the country, she has taken a giant leap to spearhead another campaign on HIV and AIDS.
Dubbed “Right to live”, it aimed at increasing awareness of the seriousness of the HIV and AIDS disease and also encourage behavioural change.
Studies have shown that although the knowledge of HIV and AIDS was high, behavioural change was low.
It is also to reduce stigmatisation and encourage society to accept people living with HIV and AIDS as an integral part of the society.
The campaign which is being put together by Knock Out Concept and Trak Mastas with sponsorship from the Ghana Business Coalition, Ghana AIDS Commission and the Graphic Communications Group Limited will be launched on November 3, 2010.
According to Tamara in recent times when the issue of HIV and AIDS came up many people seemed to be indifferent or seemed to have had enough of the messages on HIV and AIDS.
However, she noted that that should not be the case since the consequences of contracting the disease was devastating and therefore, the need for continuous education.
The 2009 HIV Sentinel Survey and National HIV and AIDS Prevalence Estimates for Ghana indicated that the adult national HIV prevalence is estimated at 1.9 per cent as compared to 1.7 per cent in 2008.
Also, the HIV prevalence among pregnant women attending ante-natal clinics was 2.9 per cent, representing a 31 per cent increase of last year’s 2.2 per cent.
The showed that there was an estimated 267,069 persons comprising 112,457 males and 154,612 females living with HIV AIDS in Ghana and 25,666 of that were children; 12,579 being females.
Additionally, there were 22,177 new infections and 20,313 AIDS deaths with 2,566 being children.
In furtherance to the “Right to live” campaign, various activities have been lined up to herald this year’s World AIDS Day on December 1.
The activities include a seminar in the Central Region for second cycle institutions.
Tamara said a seminar is being organised for students of second cycle institutions because of their vulnerability to peer pressure as they continue to wallow in their sexually active ages.
“The message needs to go down well with them so they know the consequences of their actions and inaction with regard to sex.”
Then there will be a float in the Western Region and this according to Tamara is because of the discovery of oil in that region which has opened the region up to many other opportunities and has brought about an influx of people from all walks of life across the world to that part of the country.
Another important activity is the VIP/Celebrity Endorsement where Very Important Personalities from all sectors of life including sports, music, radio and TV, politics, international organisations, reality shows, beauty pageants etc. would be asked to make an endorsement for the campaign by sending a short and brief message on HIV and AIDS to be rolled on radio and television as well as the print media.
Aside this the CEO/Senior Managers Testing Day will see CEOs and senior managers publicly test for HIV to encourage the public to do the same.
Tamara said all these activitieswould be done in a fun way and another fun way of climaxing the activities will be a music and comedy concert in Takoradi on December 11.
Asked why she was not continuing with her malaria project, Tamara who is in her fifth year at the University of Ghana Medical School said she had not abandoned malaria completely but saw the need to tackle HIV and AIDS as well, which was a serious health issue.
She appealed to other organisations and individuals to come on board and support in order for the campaign to have a positive impact on society.
Appealing also to other beauty queens not to abandon their projects after their reign, she said “once a beauty queen, always a beauty queen and you should be an answer to someone’s prayer”.