INVOLVE CHILDREN IN HIV/AIDS CAMPAIGN ...To Serve As Ambassadors

The Northern Regional Coordinator of the Partners for Africa Communities Development (PACE), Mr. Anani Ben Mawusi has called for the campaign against the spread of the deadly HIV/AIDS to be moved down to school children in the country to serve as ambassadors into the future.

According to him, Ghana could easily overcome the spread of the disease in the near future if children and the youth are well sensitized and equipped with the requisite information about the HIV/AIDS and its negative effects on individuals, families and the nation.

Speaking at this year’s World AIDS Day Celebration at Nanton in the Savelugu-Nanton District of the Northern Region organized by the Partners for Africa Communities Development (PACE) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service, Mr. Ben Mawusi encouraged the government and its local and international partners to commit more resources to schools for the procurement of adequate learning materials to enable the children have access to the needed information on HIV/AIDS.

The Celebration which was preceded by a well attended road march was under the theme: “Zero Stigmatization and Discrimination”. Hundreds of students drawn from the various schools in the district for the road march wielded placards with several inscriptions.

The PACE Regional Coordinator hinted that Ghana in the last decades had strived hard to overcome the spread of the HIV/AIDS which continues to turn out so many orphans, widows and widowers and also affecting the socio-economic development of the nation, but the desired result was yet to be achieved . Even though prevalence rate of the disease has seen some drastic decline in the last few years, he believed it was not yet a victory for Ghana.

However, the Savalugu-Nanton District Director of Health, Mrs. Joana Quarcoo decried the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS especially among the energetic youth of this country. She therefore called for change in sexual behaviours of the youth and also warned against the practice of multiple sex partners.

She noted that the Ghana Health Service had over the years used diverse ways to combat the spread of the HIV/AIDS and assured the nation new approaches in the coming years.

Mrs. Quarcoo observed that the spread of the disease would reduce if people and communities show compassion, love and care and also desist from discrimination and stigmatization against people living with the disease.

She said HIV/AIDS patients would have a very prolonged live if they were treated with respect and love.

The Ceremony was graced by the District Chief Executive for Savelugu-Nanton, Mohammed Askia who also pledged government’s commitment to assist the AIDS patients with the needed support especially in providing Anti-retroviral drugs.