Roll back HIV/AIDS scourge in Africa - Atukwei Okai

Accra, July 4, GNA - The Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), Prof. Atukwei Okai, has entreated African governments to formulate laws and policies that would help roll back the HIV/AIDS scourge on the continent.

To that end, he admonished African writers to expose the weaknesses and loopholes in government policies for the benefit of the entire continent.

"What is the use of creating artistic works for people who are being systematically taken to their death tomorrow by HIV/AIDS"?, he queried African writers, and challenged them to create works that would "climb into people's psyche and wage a persuasive war for a regime change in their moral and behavioural fiefdoms". Prof. Okai threw these challenges when the Pan Africa Programme and Campaign Officer of Oxfam Novib, Paul van Wijk, paid a courtesy call on him last week at PAWA House.

According to a statement issued by PAWA on Wednesday, the courtesy call was to gain more insight into proposed visits of African Nobel Laureates in Literature to Heads of State in Africa, a PAWA Special Project advocating for policy and health sector reform, as well as behavioural action change, among others, to combat HIV/AIDS. Briefing Mr. van Wijk and his entourage on the Writers against HIV/AIDS project, the Secretary-General indicated that there would be capacity building programmes for various writers' associations and their members to empower them respond effectively to the challenges posed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

He thus appealed to Oxfam Novib, an International Organisation advocating for behavioural change and poverty reduction, to make resources available to PAWA to help ensure a successful execution of the noble project. "It's a question of pulling resources together to maximize the outcome."

Writers, according to Prof. Okai, are the "only constituency available now to wage war against HIV/AIDS because the resources (writers) abound in Africa". He added that it would be "unimaginably wicked for society to continue to live on, while faced with such a problem and yet fail to commandeer the resources of influence of its prominent writers". He recommended that there should be a research into the culture specific beliefs, assumptions and artifactual practices that constrained the effectiveness of current efforts aimed at the problem and therefore come up with alternative approaches. Mr Paul van Wijk commended PAWA for coming up with such an initiative which, when executed, "according to the spirit of the proposal, will be wonderful".

Mr. van Wijk, who attended the 9th African Union (AU) Summit, said it was an opportunity for him to explore and access the different initiatives aimed at combating HIV/AIDS by various institutions and organizations.

He urged PAWA to create linkages and expand its network in "shaping the people of the continent". The media, according to him, must be used extensively to promote and publicize the programme when it commenced. He pledged, on his return to the Headquarters of Oxfam Novib in The Netherlands, to brief the office and the officer in charge of HIV/AIDS programmes on the prospects of the proposed PAWA project. Mr James Kamau from the Pan African Treatment Movement (PATAM) bemoaned the lack of willpower on the part of the African elite to make it public when their relatives got HIV/AIDS and thus commended former South African President, Mr Nelson Mandela, who publicly announced that his son died of HIV/AIDS.

Mr Kamau observed that "Africa has been colonized by HIV/AIDS" and therefore Africa must gain another independence with immediate effect through good government policies and behavioural change. Mr. Christophe Zoungrana, Africa Coordinator for Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), advised PAWA to have "continuous and permanent linkages to discuss how to empower people especially the youth to get out of poverty and find remedy a for HIV/AIDS". He commended PAWA for its continuous quest to tell the real African story which, he noted, would make Africans know where they were coming from and where they should be going. 04 July 07