Accra, Sept. 5, GNA - A communications officer at the Ghana AIDS Commission, Mr Eric Pwadura, said on Friday that the youth had the potential to turn the tide against HIV/AIDS by refusing to engage in high risk activities like unprotected sex.
Mr Pwadura was speaking at the passing-out ceremony of 56 former commercial sex workers after a three-month entrepreneurial training course in Accra.
The programme is being organised by Africa Enterprise, a Christian organisation committed to evangelising African cities. The sponsorship was from the Ghana AIDS Commission and Tenth Presbyterian Church in the United States.
The women received skills training in batik, tie and dye and soap making, ornaments, screen-printing, confectionery and beads making, among other vocations.
Mr Pwadura said, even though Ghana's new HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 3.6 per cent might look small when compared to figures in the West African Sub-Region, it is still dangerous. He said adolescent should be supported to make decisions to abstain from sex.
Mr Leo Arthur Yarkwa, the Project Manager, said the programme began in 1998 in Kumasi and they have so far trained, rehabilitated and equipped 106 women, who were formerly in the sex trade to lead meaningful lives.
He said apart from the word of God that the organisation shared with them they were also enlightened on the dangers of HIV/AIDS. Mr Yarkwa said the girls were rounded up at the Nkrumah Circle, Osu Oxford Street and many other places in the country.
Each of them received a certificate and 1.2 million cedis as seed money to start a trade and open a bank account.
He said to ensure that they did not go back to the street each of them would have a Pastor to monitor their work and counsel them.
