"Wake-keeping promotes sexual promiscuity"

Traditional authorities have been urged to ban wake-keepings as a way of curbing the increasing HIV/AIDS menace and the incidence of unplanned pregnancies, especially those related to teenagers.

Mr Edward Asare Kumi, a Steward of the Ebenezer Methodist Church at Okorase near Koforidua, who made the appeal, claimed that wake-keepings, rather than being a means to showing compassion to bereaved families and deceased persons had become an avenue of sexual promiscuity, especially by the youth.

Speaking at the launch of an HIV/AIDS campaign by the Koforidua Circuit of the Methodist Church at Okorase on Friday, Mr Kumi therefore, appealed to traditional authorities to ban all wake-keepings and in the process lessen the economic costs of such events on the bereaved families and the social implications for the state.

The campaign, which was sponsored by Ghana AIDS Commission, was also used to inaugurate a 30 member peer counsellors for the Koforidua Circuit to create awareness among members of the church about the scourges of the disease. He said it is common to find a lot of teenage girls, especially, getting pregnant few days after major funerals because the youth usually take advantage of such occasions to indulge in indiscriminate sex.

The Eastern Regional Director of Education, the Reverend Ama Afo Blay, who is the Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of the Methodist Church HIV/AIDS campaign, said a study conducted by the church in about 20 communities revealed that many people were still ignorant about the existence of the disease.

"This means the message had not gone far and the church has to come in and assist the people already living with HIV/AIDS to live a meaningful life", she added.

The Koforidua Diocesan Superintendent Minister, the Very Rev Michael Bossman, said the Methodist Church was moving into a new phase in combating the disease that would include the provision of information and education for the youth and other vulnerable groups as well as providing care for people already afflicted with the disease.

The Akuapem North District Chief Executive, Dr (Mrs) Eugenia Quist, asked Ghanaians to show more compassion to HIV patients and urged the patients to reciprocate this gesture by avoiding infecting other people.

The Okorasehene, Nana Asare Kumi II, who chaired the function asked the youth to take all pieces of advice and education about the disease seriously.