ADRA Ghana partners MIHOSO to control HIV/AIDS

Mission of Hope Society International (MIHOSO) in collaboration with the Adventist Relief Development Agency (ADRA Ghana), is implementing a project to control the spread of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in the Ashanti Region.

Dubbed; “Reinforcing the Scaling up of HIV Services: Strengthen HIV Prevention and Effective Targeting,” the two-year project is being funded by the Global Fund.

It is being implemented in the Asokore Mampong, Ejisu Juabeng and Bekwai municipalities as well as Kwabre East and Adansi North districts.

Mr Godwin Gyasi Agyarko, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of MIHOSO, who made this known to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Sunyani on Monday, said other supporting implementers of the project included Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana, Ghana AIDS Commission and National Malaria Control Programme.

He said the project specifically targets lesbians, homosexuals, commercial sex workers and drug addicts in the five implementing districts and municipalities.

Mr Agyarko said statistics showed that more than 50 per cent of new HIV infections recorded in the country in 2013 were among the project target population, hence the need to recognise their vulnerability and accord them the right to access treatment and prevention.

In Ghana though the general HIV/AIDS prevalence rate for 2014 is about 1.6 per cent, the regional rates are between 0.8 and 3.7 per cent, indicating that the prevalence rate among the key populations is significantly high.

Mr Thomas Benarkuu, the Project Coordinator, explained that as part of the project 40 female sex workers from the project implementing communities were being trained on HIV/AIDS prevention strategies to enable them to educate their peers.

They are being taken through topics such as sexual and gender base violence abuse, TB screening, HIV/STI management, stigma reduction, drugs and substance abuse, condom use, communication, facilitation as well as negotiation skills, data management, reporting and effective targeting.

Mr Benarkuu said the focus on the key population was justified by the need to recognise them as legitimate groups in the fight against the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

He reiterated the need for the general public to desist from stigmatization of HIV/AIDS patients, and accept and accord them the respect and dignity they deserved.

MIHOSO is a Sunyani-based Non Governmental Organisation providing public health, social and organisational development interventions to communities through evidence-based research, advocacy, capacity building, sharing of resources, and provision of livelihood empowerment programmes to women, the youth and children.