HIV/AIDS is real and not superstition

Awutu Obrachire (C/R), Sept. 15, GNA - The Awutu-Effutu-Senya district director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Emmanuel T. Mensah, has cautioned people in the district who perceive the HIV/AIDS pandemic as a superstition syndrome, to discard such notion and learn to adopt decent sexual practices to protect themselves. Mr. Mensah was addressing an HIV/AIDS awareness rally at Awutu Obrachire in the Central Region as part of the NCCE's special sensitisation programme on the disease.

He told members of the community, mostly farmers, that the disease is real and that anyone who joke with it would have him or herself to blame "because AIDS has no respect for anybody."

Mr Mensah said unless all sexual-active people heed the useful advice of voluntary groups engaged in the AIDS awareness campaign seriously, the entire nation will soon be torn into a state of confusion and anarchy, judging from the rate at which the deadly pandemic is spreading in the country.

He expressed appreciation to the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Assembly and the district response initiative of HIV/AIDS for collectively sponsoring the NCCE's campaign, which has so far covered about 20 communities in the district.

Mr Kojo Ntarmah and Mr Richard Akohoho, both field officers of the NCCE, took turns to explain to the people the devastating effects of the disease and the mode of acquisition.

They advised deceased relatives and spouses of deceased victims not to litigate over the property of deceased AIDS patients but rather come together to devise effective means of catering for their children.

Reach out to AIDS patients - victim pleads

New Edubiase (Ash), Sept. 15, GNA -An AIDS patient has called on Ghanaians, especially relatives of HIV/AIDS patients, to reach out to them because they have an important role to play to curb the spread of the pandemic.

Miss Diana Babere, the Patient, expressed regret about the way some people treated people living with the disease and said some people even drove AIDS patients out of their houses in addition tormenting them. Giving a personal testimony on the disease at a HIV/AIDS sensitisation durbar organised by Hope for Humanity, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) at New Edubiase on Saturday, she appealed to the government to enact a law that would deal with those who would treat AIDS patients as outcasts.

Miss Babere said if the current spread of the disease were to be curbed, all those living with the disease should be treated humanely so that they would not go underground to spread the disease. Mr Dominic Yeboah, Adansi East District Chief Executive, called on the people to heed the anti-HIV/AIDS messages on prevention and change their sexual behaviour.

He commended Hope for Humanity for its efforts at sensitising the people on the disease and asked them to carry their campaign to every part of the District.

Mrs Bridget Richardson Nsiah, Project Coordinator of Hope for Humanity, told the people that the risk of acquiring the disease at New Edubiase was not different from people at Obuasi, which was very close to New Edubiase and where the infection rate ranked among the highest in the country.

She advised girls and women engaged in commercial sex activities in the District to stop before they contracted the disease. A team of 30 women volunteers drawn from various women's groups in churches at New Edubiase was inaugurated at the ceremony to assist in promoting behavioural change among the people. 15 Sept. 03