YOWE embarks on project to address HIV stigmatization in Lower Manya Krobo

The Youth and Women Empowerment (YOWE), an NGO based in Lower Manya Krobo in the Eastern Region has launched the ‘Impact of HIV/AIDS through volunteerism in Lower Manya Krobo Municipality,’ an intervention aimed at reducing stigma and discrimination against HIV in the area.

The year-long pilot project with funding from STAR-Ghana, is aimed at increasing access to healthcare and treatment by patients of the disease with HIV gaining recognition as a major global health problem.

UNAIDS global statistics on HIV indicate that approximately 37.9 million people were estimated to be living with HIV worldwide by the end of 2018.

Unfortunately, 24.5 million people accessed antiretroviral drugs by the end of 2019.

Despite a significant drop in HIV in recent times, new infections continue to occur especially among the young population, posing a barrier to efforts towards ensuring epidemic control.

Education at the workplace therefore constitutes a formidable strategy for the prevention of the disease.

Therefore, YOWE, with support from STAR-Ghana through its volunteerism project in partnership with the St. Martin’s De Pores Hospital at Agomanya and the Atua Government Hospital, both in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region, is embarking on the project to address the worrying issue of stigma and encourage HIV positive persons to access their medications from the health facilities.

The Executive Director of the Youth and Women Empowerment, Emmanuel Siakwa noted that though it anticipates challenges in fighting stigmatization to enhance patients freely visiting health facilities for their treatments, it nevertheless hopes to surmount the canker to positively impact HIV treatment in the locality.

“The challenge is with affected persons refusing to access treatment due to their status. If people can still stigmatize themselves and say, ‘I’ve contracted the disease and so I’m shy, then we won’t succeed in this project but if they erase the shyness or regret, then they can freely access the medication,” he stressed.

According to Mr. Siakwa, data available for its perusal indicated that about 45% of persons living with HIV in Lower Manya Krobo were refusing to access medical treatment.

The project, he added, therefore targets increasing the number of persons accessing treatment by at least, 10%.

The project which is being piloted over one year, Mr. Siakwa added, will be extended depending on its success at the end of the piloting.

Through acts of volunteerism, the health practitioners from the two major health institutions will engage in community outreach programs to bridge the gap between persons living with HIV and health facilities to ensure that they access their medications.

He asserted that the project was driven by the high HIV prevalence rate in the affected communities, a situation he said was relegated to the background since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, the resurgence of the disease in recent times at an alarming rate was a bother, adding that stigma was playing a major role in the disturbing phenomenon.

He was concerned that stigmatization led to many affected persons failing to access or take their medications leading to the increased prevalence rate.

“HIV is not a disease and nothing to be ashamed of, we’re all at risk. The stigma has led to affected persons refusing to go for the medications and many of them are dying our focus therefore is how to get those who have tested positive to resume assessing medication.”

A physician assistant at the St. Martin’s De Pores Hospital, Joseph Kwaku Tetteh noted that the majority of patients were failing to come to the hospital for treatment.

“We’ve realized that a lot of our friends are defaulting. When we go into statistics, we’ve realized that 57% of those who are actively on treatment are defaulting,” he said in an interview.

Mr. Tetteh who doubles as the HIV and TB coordinator at the facility was optimistic that the steps initiated by YOWE were in the right direction and capable of addressing the situation.

He attributed the dwindling numbers of HIV persons accessing medication to the stigmatization phenomenon with affected persons shying away from health personnel and family as a result.

Mr. Tetteh also cited the inability of such persons to pay transportation fares to the hospitals due to financial difficulties as another reason for the high default rate with the regrettable situation, affecting the globally projected 90/90/90 target.

The intervention by YOWE, he added is timely as the health facilities are incapable of undertaking such initiatives.

He advocated for more stakeholder and community engagements to raise the awareness of the people regarding the realities of the disease and the need to stay safe.