Community involvement in HIV, AIDS key

Saturday, October 3, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 25)

By Rebecca Kwei
THE President of Afro Global Alliance, Chief Austin Arinze Obiefuna, has called for more community involvement in the fight against HIV and AIDS pandemic.
He said the community’s involvement in the care and support of people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS will complement efforts of governments and civil society to reduce the burden of the disease.
Chief Abiefuna made the call at the opening of a four-day special meeting of the International Advisory Board of the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial in Accra.
The Memorial, a programme of the Global Health Council, is one of the largest grass roots mobilisation campaigns for HIV/AIDS awareness in the world.
He said the 2006 UNAIDS report indicated that sub-Saharan Africa had the largest burden of the AIDS epidemic and it was estimated that about 2.1 million Africans died of AIDS in 2006.
He said HIV/AIDS and other related diseases like tuberculosis were no longer a health matter, but “a government, development and collective issue requiring the attention of all of us.”
The Country Co-ordinator of UNAIDS, Dr Leo Zekeng, also emphasised the need to broaden and strengthen engagements with communities in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
Dr Zekeng cautioned Ghana not to be complacent about the drop in the HIV prevalence but rather double up to make sure the prevalence was further reduced.
The national adult HIV prevalence is 1.7 per cent, which is a decline from the 2007 prevalence of 1.9 per cent.
The International Outreach Co-ordinator of the Global Health Council, Todd Lawrence, said the Candlelight Memorial started in 1983 and took place on the third Sunday of May every year and led by a coalition of 1,200 community organisations in 115 countries.
He said the coalition hosted local memorials that honoured the lost and raise social consciousness about the disease.
Additionally, he said the memorial provided opportunities for leadership development, policy advocacy, partnerships and improvement of community mobilisation skills.
In a speech read on her behalf, the acting Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr Angela El-Adas, said with the almost 33 million people living with HIV and AIDS, the programme continued to offer global solidarity and hope to generations.