Kadjebi Asato Briefed On HIV/AIDS

First Sky Limited, a Tema-based road construction firm in collaboration with the Department of Feeder Roads, has organised an HIV/AIDS education seminar for the people of Kadjebi Asato in the Volta Region.

The company is engaged in the resurfacing of the 15-kilometre road linking Kadjebi to Asato.

The programme forms part of the Cocoa Road Improvement Project (CRIP) initiated by the Ministry of Transportation and seeks to educate construction workers and the communities where road construction works are taken about the causes and prevention of AIDS.

This is a move to help control the spread of the disease.

Eric Sedi Kutortse, chief Executive officer of the company, said a research undertaken by the Ministry of Health indicated that construction workers could either help in spreading or minimising the disease.

He said the ministry decided to make HIV/AIDS, educational campaigns part of road construction activities in order to check the spread of the disease.

Mr Kutortse advised the participants to help spread the message so that more people can avoid being infected.

About GH¢400 worth of male and female condoms were distributed freely to the members of the communities.

The Volta Regional Manager of the Department of Feeder Roads, Mr Herbert Koranteng, in a message read for him, said constructional workers should not be stigmatised as HIV carriers since it is only when people get tested that they will know their real status.

He advised the participants to use the condoms properly in order to protect themselves from the disease.

Ms Grace Djorbua of the Kadjebi Health Post, revealed that 66 people were diagnosed of HIV in 2005, while 58 and 67 others were diagnosed in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

She, advised mem-bers of the community to protect themselves.

Nana Brepong Osei Bonsu IV, paramount chief of Asato traditional area, advised the youth especially young women to abstain from indiscriminate sex or use the condom to avoid infection.