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Regional News of Monday, 19 May 2003

Source: gna

525 million cedis voted for AIDS campaign in Mfantseman

Two non-governmental organisations (NGO's) and seven community-based organisations (CBO's) in the Mfantseman District of the Central Region have received grants totalling 525 million cedis from the Ghana AIDS Commission for AIDS awareness creation initiatives.

The two NGO's received 400 million cedis while the CBO's were given a total of 125 million cedis.

Mr Jonathan Benefo, the District HIV/AIDS Monitoring and Evaluation Focal Person announced this at a quarterly meeting of the District AIDS Committee at Saltpond on Friday.

Mr Benefo said the DAC had also received 100 million cedis grant for capacity building of its members and for monitoring activities of the recipient organisations.

He urged the district assemblies not to use grants from the Ghana AIDS Commission as excuse to shirk their responsibility of releasing their share of one per cent of the Common Fund for fighting the disease in their areas.

Mr Benefo cautioned the recipients to use the funds strictly for the purpose they were given adding that he would not hesitate to report anyone who misapplied the money to the Commission.

Nana Baah VII, Chief of Saltpond Lower Town and Chairman of the District AIDS Committee appealed to the Commission to shift attention to providing support for caring for people living with HIV/AIDS and how to prevent new infections.

The Chief said investigations had proved that about 90 per cent of Ghanaians were aware of the existence of the disease and therefore any resources provided for awareness creation could be wasted.