Ghana Post to launch competition on HIV/AIDS

Hohoe, March 23, GNA - The Pan-African Post Union (PAPU), a specialised agency for the African Union (AU), has mandated Ghana and Nigeria to pilot a project for the continent on HIV/AIDS and letter writing on competitive basis.

The project is aimed at creating awareness for postal service agencies on the continent in the face of challenges posed by Information Communication Technology (ICT).

It is also to boost the tourism awareness of the general public especially students as post offices would be mandated to organise easy writing competitions peculiar to their traditional areas.

Mr Kofi Dua-Adonteng, the Managing Director of Ghana Postal Company, told the GNA in an interview that Ghana has added Tuberculoses (TB) to the concept since there was a close correlation between HIV/AIDS and TB. He said collaborative and implementation agencies included the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES), Ghana Health Service (GHS), Ghana Association for the Prevention of TB and the Ghana Posts.

Modalities including sponsorship and target group were being worked out and explained that the larger the target group the larger revenue that would be accrued as entries would be retrieved only through the post.

Mr Dua-Adonteng said the event would be launched soon and that it was expected each regional and district office would play key roles in the implementation of the project.

He said post boxes would be ceded to individuals as soon as door-to-door delivery has shown remarkable result.

Mr Dua-Adonteng said the strategy to build post receptacle at identifiable areas and provide ministries, departments and agencies, financial and non-governmental organisations with mailbags would solve the problem of unavailability of post boxes.