HIV/AIDS SENSITISATION WORKSHOP FOR MARKET WOMEN (PAGE 29)

The Ghana AIDS Commission and National Disaster Management Committee have organised an HIV/AIDS sensitisation programme for more than 1,500 market women and porters in the twin-city of Sekondi/Takoradi.
The focus was to ensure that various segments of the society were made aware of the importance of voluntary counselling and testing, self-discipline and non-stigmatisation of people living with the disease.
The Regional Director of NADMO, Mr Kofi Nyonkopa Arthur, said the regional office had over the years embarked on a campaign to help drum home the message of the need to support the national quest in reducing the pandemic.
He said awareness of the pandemic had been created across the world and at least everyone was aware of the dangers and the socio-economic effects on countries.
Mr Arthur said the NADMO-Ghana Aids Commission (GAC) collaboration was to re-echo the importance of self-control and the need to encourage people to test and know their status to avail themselves of the necessary interventions to manage their lives so that they could continue to contribute to the development of the country.
“It is very important for us to note that for a country to develop, its citizens have to be very healthy and of a sound mind,” he said.
He said Sekondi/Takoradi was chosen for the campaign because of its fast growing nature and commended the porters and traders who participated in it in their numbers.
Mrs Effie Josiah, a senior nursing officer at the Public Health Department of the regional hospital at Effia-Nkwanta took time to answer questions from the porters about how to be responsible.
She said the government had put in place certain interventions at various health facilities but the public were not availing themselves of them.
Mrs Josiah said it was gratifying that porters, traders and other members of the general public took time off their schedules to listen and partake in the counselling and testing segment.
Participants thanked the NADMO and GAC for the programme and assured them of their commitment to the fight the pandemic.