AIDS awareness workshop held at Ejisu

Ejisu (Ash), Sept. 22, GNA - Mr Kwabena Adjei-Boakye, Co-ordinator of the Peer Education Programme (PEP) of CHO-SERVE Foundation, an NGO has attributed the spread of HIV/AIDS to indifference towards the disease among the people.

He expressed regret that in spite of the fast rate of the spread of the disease people still indulge in indiscriminate sex. Mr Adjei-Boakye was speaking at the close of a five-day HIV/AIDS Awareness workshop for 100 Peer Educators at Ejisu on Saturday, organised by the Foundation with support from the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC).

The participants were from 20 communities in the Ejisu-Juaben District including Boama Dumase, Akyawkrom, Ofoase, Manhyia, Apemso, Kubease, Atia, Odoyefe, Besease and Nkyerepoaso. Mr. Adjei-Boakye urged married couples to be faithful to their partners and asked the unmarried to stay clear of casual sex to curb the spread of the disease.

The Reverend Maxwell Boakye-Agyemang, Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation, urged the youth to refrain from sex and to concentrate on their studies.

He said experimenting with sex could either lead them into contracting the disease or other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and teenage pregnancies, which could ruin their future.

Rev. Boakye-Agyemang said the NGO assists in curbing social vices such as drug abuse, prostitution and teenage pregnancies among the youth in rural areas.

He said its other aims are to instil moral discipline and patriotism in the youth and to stop the rural-urban migration as well as educate and raise awareness on HIV/AIDS. Rev. Boakye-Agyemang said the Foundation has since its inception a year ago assisted 23 deprived but brilliant students from Atia, a community in the district were it has acquired land for an educational complex.