Voluntary counselling and testing advocated

Koforidua, July 14, GNA - The Reverend Father Alex Bobby Benson, Founder and Director of "Mathew Chapter 25" Project, a non-governmental organisation, has called on individuals to avail themselves of the opportunity to go for voluntary counselling and testing in order to know their HIV/AIDS status.

Rev. Benson made the call at Koforidua in the Eastern Region when 58 orphaned children, as a result of the disease and nine adults were tested for HIV/AIDS.

All the adults proved to be negative while two children and a 19-year-old girl proved positive.

The Director, whose NGO is dedicated to checking the spread of the disease through educational campaigns and sensitisation programmes in communities and schools, besides taking care of infected people and orphaned children said, it would help a lot in the fight against the spread of the disease if people were courageous enough to go for testing.

Rev. Benson said all is not lost and with the results, he has been encouraged to intensify education among children so that they would impact on their peers.

He said there should be attitudinal change if the fight against the spread of the disease was to be contained.

The programme coincided with a visit by the Knights and Ladies of the Number 403 St George's Commandry of the Knights of St John International Koforidua, who donated 200 Ghana Cedis to the NGO. Mr. Cosmos Wemegah, a counsellor at Adukrom Secondary Technical School and a member of the order said the visit and the donation were part of activities marking the birth of St. John.

Mr. Wemegah said one of their obligations was to assist the vulnerable in society and hoped their widow's mite would go long way in making life a bit comfortable for members of "Mathew 25". Rev. Benson expressed appreciation to the group and appealed to individuals, organisations and NGOs for assistance since according to him the sustainability of the work he had tasked himself to do depended on charity.