INTENSIFY EDUCATION TO CURB SPREAD OF HIV (PAGE 11, DEC 15)

THE DEPUTY Eastern Regional Minister, Muhammed Ahmed Baba Jamal, has called on the media and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to intensify educational campaigns on negative cultural practices that contribute to the spread of HIV AIDS.
He said research had shown that by their biological nature, women were more prone to HIV infection than men when they engaged in unprotected sex, and that situation had been compounded due to a number of cultural practices and factors which militate against women’s rights.
Baba Jamal made the call when he addressed a public forum on HIV AIDS and violence against women in Koforidua. The event was organised by Ark Foundation, an NGO dedicated to the welfare of women and children.
He made reference to the widowhood rites that compelled widows to marry a relative of their deceased husband, the social norm that makes women submissive to men, as well as women’s inability to negotiate for safe sex, as some of the risk factors that exposed women to the virus.
He said such a culture had allowed men to take undue advantage of women in matters relating to sex and that had accounted for the spread of HIV, particularly among women.
The deputy regional minister expressed his appreciation about the role being played by the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service other law enforcing agencies, civil society groups, especially the Ark Foundation to address the issues.
The Eastern Regional Director of DOVVSU, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Eunice Annor and Madam Hillary Gbedemah, a legal practitioner, took the gathering through the various aspects of domestic violence and how it related the spread of HIV.
Earlier, the Executive Director of the Ark Foundation, Madam Angela Dwamena Aboagye said her outfit would continue to organise advocacy programmes on the issues and also ensure the implementation of policies that would help address the problems.
This, she indicated had become necessary because a lot of women and children needed to be protected from domestic violence, as a positive step towards the HIV response programme.