Wa, Jan. 09, GNA- The Wa Polytechnic has developed an
HIV/AIDS Policy Framework with financial support from the World
Bank under the Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TALIF) to
help create awareness of the disease among its 800 students and 80
staff. It would also educate about 1,000 residents in the neighbouring
communities about HIV/AIDS and persuade them to embrace the; "I
choose life" concept that the Polytechnic had adopted to help stem
the spread of the disease. Mr. Solomon A. Dansieh, Vice Rector of the Polytechnic made
these known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in
Wa on Thursday. He said, part of the fund had been used by the Management
Studies Department to implement a project on awareness creation,
with the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology
(SIAST) from Canada providing the expertise. Mr. Dansieh, who is also the Project Organiser said the
Polytechnic had established an HIV/AIDS Committee and a Campus
Club to sustain activities of the programme. He said the pandemic had become a global issue, and current
prevalence rates were higher among the youth. Mr. Dansieh said the Wa Polytechnic has no hostel facilities and
that, students had to look elsewhere for their own accommodation in
the communities, a situation which exposed them to, not only
extortion by landlords, but also all the perils and temptations that
could make them vulnerable to the pandemic. He said the Polytechnic had therefore, developed a policy
framework to help educate the students to adopt appropriate
lifestyles to secure themselves from the disease. The Polytechnic authorities in collaboration with the Upper West
Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) and the Ghana Health
Services had carried out an HIV/AIDS voluntary testing and
counselling exercise among the students. A surveillance exercise had also been conducted by the Regional
Health Directorate for the students. Mr. Dansieh said the Ghana AIDS Commission had also assisted
the Polytechnic with funds under its Multi-Sectoral HIV/AIDS sub
project, part of which had been used to sensitise the people of
Kongu, a community three kilometres from the Polytechnic, on
HIV/AIDS. He said such sensitization campaigns had been beneficial as many
people in the communities had now accepted voluntary counselling
and testing. Mr. Dansieh said an HIV/AIDS Counselling Centre would also be
established on campus, while billboards with HIV/AIDS messages
would be mounted at strategic points to create indelible pictures of
realities of the pandemic on the minds of the students, staff and the
public.
