GHANET kicks off implementation of global fund grant cycle seven HIV self-testing project

The GHANA HIV and AIDS Network (GHANET) has organized a three-day workshop in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Capital to officially commence implementation of the Global Fund Grant Cycle (GC7) HIV Self-Testing (HIVST) project.

Participants for the workshop comprised 50 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) selected from the membership of the Network across the country. Each organization was represented by three persons (including volunteers) bringing the total number of participants to 150.

In his welcome address the president of the Network, Mr. Ernest Amoabeng Ortsin (who is also the Acting Chairman of the Country Coordinating Mechanism of the Global Fund) congratulated the 50 NGOs on their selection to participate in the implementation of the project. He urged them to see themselves as ambassadors on a mission to support the country’s efforts to find the missing HIV cases in the country.

Mr. Ortsin reiterated that, as part of the strategy for the implementation, special focus will be placed on getting more men to test for HIV through self-testing. According to him, even though the national data shows that more females are infected than males, any time groups of males and females are randomly tested, the yield in the male population is often higher than female population. This he said, means that, “if more effort is directed towards getting men to test, it would be possible for the country to find more of the missing HIV cases.”

In his address, the Programme Manager of Dr. Stephen Ayisi Addo National AIDS/STI Control Programme (NACP) also praised GHANET for a successful implementation of the pilot phase of the HIVST project in the year 2023. He noted that, “the continuation of the project by GHANET was based on the Network’s innovative approach to the rollout last year.” According to Dr. Ayisi Addo, “GHANET has succeeded in promoting HIVST as a very important alternative method.”

Speaking on the 95-95-95 UNAIDS global targets, Dr. Ayisi Addo indicated that the country is currently not making much progress given that out of the estimated 334000 people living with HIV, only 65% of them know their status. Of the number that know their status, only 69% has been put on treatment and of those on treatment about 89% have achieved viral suppression.

Dr. Ayisi Addo noted that, “Ghana Health Service (GHS) through the NACP is currently celebrating ART@20 which is meant to commemorate 20 years of the introduction of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) in the country.” He spoke about how ART has saved thousands of lives and how Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) like GHANET have contributed to the great strides which have been made to reduce new infections.

In an address read on his behalf the Eastern Regional Director of the GHS, Dr. Winfred Ofosu, urged the participants to take the workshop seriously and be ready to create more demand for HIVST in the communities where they would be working. Dr. Ofosu emphasized the point that “CSOs and government are partners and therefore always need to work together for the greater good of society.”

Over the three-day period, the lead facilitator for the workshop was Dr. Anthony Ashinyo, Deputy Programme Manager of NACP (assisted by Ms. Doris Awudi, also from NACP), Mr. Samuel Hackman, Executive Secretary of the Country Coordinating Mechanism of the Global Fund (assisted by Ms. Catherine Williams Sarsah also of the CCM) as well as Dr. Jerry Yahaya, the Regional Coordinator of the Technical Support Unit (TSU) of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC). Some of the topics that were treated included basic facts about HIV and AIDS, prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, community demand generation for HIVST, as well as narrative report writing and basic project accounting.

Source: GHANET