Workshop on HIV/AIDS ends in winneba

Winneba (C/R), Sept. 15, GNA - A day workshop on care and support for People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs), has ended at Winneba for 40 participants drawn from groups in the Effutu Municipality. Participants were made up of "chop bar" operators, hairdressers, drinking bar operators, tailors, seamstresses, welders, fitters, carpenters, masons, market women, fishermen and fish mongers. The Centre for Informal Activities and Development (CIAD), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in Kasoa organised the workshop with support from the Effutu Municipal Assembly. The workshop was aimed at equipping participants with the requisite knowledge on HIV/AIDS under the theme: "HIV/AIDS is no Respecter of Persons, so let us Care and Support PLWHAs." Participants were educated on Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT), Behaviour Changing Communication (BCC), ways to generate income for PLWHAs, stigmatisation reduction, human right issues and industrial behaviour charge communication. Mr Edward Kwame Asare, a representative from the NGO in his presentation urged Ghanaians to show compulsion to PLWHS. Mr Clifford Simpson, Effutu Municipal HIV/AIDS Co-ordinator said records from the Winneba Government Hospital indicated an increases in HIV/AIDS in the area since the past three years. According to him in 2005 the Hospital recorded 128 HIV positive persons but this jumped to 355 in 2006, but dropped to 196 in 2007. 15 Sept. 08