Goaso (B /A), Oct. 5, GNA - Mr. Matthew Atingo, a senior lecturer of the Institute of Adult Education, University of Ghana, Legon, has called for the abolition of some socio-cultural practices that tended to rather promote the spread of HIV/AIDS.

He said if practices such as female genital mutilation and widowhood rites were not stopped the campaign against the spread of the pandemic would not yield results.

Mr. Atingo was speaking at a two-day HIV/AIDS workshop organised by Brong-Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs and sponsored by Ghana AIDS Commission in Goaso.

The workshop, attended by 17 paramount chiefs from the Ahafo area, was aimed at identifying cultural and traditional practices susceptible to HIV and to find ways of modifying them. Mr. Atingo expressed concern about sexual promiscuity among the youth and urged the chiefs to impress on their subjects to revisit customs and traditions that prevented early sex. Mr. R.A. Akalti, project coordinator, appealed to chiefs and other opinion leaders to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He said if the people changed their attitudes towards sex "we would at least be able to reduce the spread of the pandemic to a minimal level".

Mr. Akalti appealed to the youth to refrain from pre-marital sex, drug abuse and alcoholism that could ruin their future. Mr. Francis Kyei, Asunafo North Municipal focal person on HIV/AIDS, said preventing the spread of the pandemic was a collective responsibility. He expressed regret that successive governments had committed funds to the fight against the pandemic but it had continued to spread and said this was a threat to national advancement. 0