Abura-Afrangua (C/R), Sept. 28, GNA - The Reverend Isaac K. Gyedu, President of Mankessim-based Universal Christian Mission Association (UCMA), has condemned Ghanaians, especially the youth, who still believed that HIV/AIDS was not real and so they could go ahead with their indiscriminate sexual activities with impunity. He has therefore strongly cautioned the people to listen to reason and quickly desist from such destructive attitude.
Closing a special peer educators' workshop on HIV/AIDS disease at Abura-Afrangua in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese District, Rev. Gyedu told the participants that the nation was spending huge sums of money on the pandemic annually, which otherwise could have been used to construct more school buildings, provide electricity, potable water and clinics to improve lives of the rural people.
Rev. Gyedu maintained that the infection was spreading fast in some communities due to Ghanaians' attitude towards several useful anti-HIV/AIDS educational programmes initiated by the Government and numerous nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to bring prevalent rate down. He challenged people, particularly the young men and young women who doubted the existence of AIDS, to visit various hospitals to see things for themselves.
They could also contact medical experts and focal persons who had the figures of affected AIDS victims for reliable and accurate information about the number of people infected and those who had died of it in recent years.
Rev. Gyedu renewed his appeal to chiefs, family heads, churches and benevolent organizations to intensify their education on the pandemic to save the nation from losing precious lives through AIDS. He advised participants to carry the message to people in their communities and also to conduct public meetings with the assistance of the chiefs and community leaders to sensitize the inhabitants continuously on the dangers posed by the infection.
