SEND-Ghana Advocates An End To HIV Stigma

Mrs Harriet Nuamah-Agyemang, the Programme Officer of SEND-Ghana, has called on the public to stop the stigmatisation and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS.

She said if community members did not change their attitude towards these people, all the efforts of improving their lives would be a farce.

Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang made the call at a workshop organised by SEND-Ghana for co-ordinators of activities of the Participatory, Monitoring and Evaluation Committee under the People for Health (P4H) Project in some five districts of the Greater Accra Region.

It was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with support from Penplusbytes and the Ghana News Agency.

The workshop aimed at strengthening the capacity of the collaborating agencies such as the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies and to improve their assessment on P4H projects in the communities and come out with emerging issues.

It was also to help establish problems associated with stigmatisation and discrimination against Persons living with HIV/AIDS as well as the benefits of victims disclosing their health status to their relations.

Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang expressed the hope that the strengthening of monitoring and evaluation programmes would have a positive effect on persons living with the disease.

She said although there had been various ways of educating the public, some people had ignored those advices and continued with the stigmatisation and discrimination.

Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang said the knowledge of HIV among the public was high, but stigma and discrimination was common, hence the need for the workshop to enable the co-ordinators to report on the activities they encountered during their meetings with the communities.

Miss Sandra Sakwabea, the Project Officer of SEND-Ghana, took the Committee members through their responsibilities to ensure that the right things were done.

New executive members were elected for the Committee with Mr Isaac Ampomah of La-Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly being elected as Chairman, while Madam Jane Oku of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and Reverend John Azumah won the Vice Chairperson and Secretary positions respectively.