HIV/AIDS peer educators attend training workshop

Anyinasuso (Ash) Jan. 20, GNA - Mrs. Elizabeth Naana Abudu, District Director of Education in the Ahafo-Ano North District has stated that the government's aim at providing quality education in the country will be a failure and waste of resources if the beneficiaries are sick and unhealthy.

She therefore, called on Ghanaians to support programmes and activities, aim at preventing and educating HIV/AIDS menace in the country.

Mrs. Naana Abudu stated this on Saturday, January 19, when she officially opened a six-day training workshop for 120 HIV/AIDS peer educators and 31 teachers drawn from Junior High Schools in the District at the Integrated Community Centre for employable skills at Anyinasuso. She noted that adolescents in the country are faced with challenges in the course of their development, which includes teenage pregnancies, school drop-out, drug-abuse, sexual and productive health problems like rape, sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. She explained that children needed to know the facts about their own sexuality and emotional changes and thereby take responsible and appropriate decisions about their development.

The Director appealed to the participants to take the training course seriously in other to play their respective roles more efficiently and effectively to help promote quality education and health for the proper development of children in the district. Nana Boaten, Deputy Director of Education who chaired the function, praised the participants for sacrificing their time, especially at the period when the focus of all Ghanaians was on the 26th African Nations Cup Tournament in Ghana.

He appealed to the organizers to adjust their time-table and make televisions available at the centre to enable the participants to enjoy the competition.

The training workshop is to train the peer educators to help disseminate information on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.