GAC Rolls Out HIV Prevention Programme For The Disabled
The Ghana Aids Commission (GAC) is currently engaging persons with disability for the preparation of a strategic plan which would include them in the national response to the HIV/AIDS, to step up its prevention among the disabled.
Ms Golda Asante, Head of the Eastern Regional Technical Support Unit explaining the “Leaving no one behind, an intervention for persons living with disability” to participants of a day’s stakeholders’ workshop of persons with disability at Koforidua, said the project has been rolled out as an intervention to rope in the disabled into the larger national plan for HIV/AIDS to intensify prevention.
She said the project aimed at achieving behavioral change among persons with disability living with HIV/AIDS with the specific objective of promoting abstinence, the practice of safe sex and condom use among such persons, whiles also bringing health services closer to them.
Ms Asante said the project is receiving funds from the GAC has been which is also sponsoring the Federation of Persons with Disability to organize some HIV/AIDS interventions for their members in Eastern and Ashanti Regions.
In an interview on the sidelines of the workshop, most of the participants who hailed the project as a very positive step said though much has been achieved at the national level as regards HIV/AIDS prevention, the same cannot be said for the disabled.
They spoke of the exposure of some disabled persons to sexual exploitation of one kind or the other increasing their susceptibility to sexually-transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, but some sufferers due to their physical challenges, are unable to access appropriate health care, which exacerbates the already dicey health conditions.
“A policy to compel public health institutions to engage sign language professionals at all health facilities to assist in the two-way communication between health service providers and those with hearing impairment for better healthcare provision, would be most welcome” one of them not wanting to be known said.
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