Tuesday, July 14, 2009

NGO ADOPTS 50 HIV-POSITIVE CHILDREN (PAGE 30)

A CHILD-RELATED non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Kumasi, Light For Children, has adopted 50 HIV positive children in the metropolis for care and support.
The Kumasi South Hospital and Children’s Homes helped the organisation in the identification of the children, some of whose parents had died of the disease.
The children were provided with anti-retroviral therapy, nutritional supplements and food to meet their special dietary requirements, and also support their educational needs.
Mr Yaw Otchere Baffour, the Executive Director of the organisation, told the Daily Graphic that the children had been provided care-givers who were monitored to ensure that they performed their duties with all seriousness.
The organisation, he said, had also launched a malarial control programme dubbed, “mobilise against malaria project” in the metropolis with focus on pregnant women and children under five years.
Under the programme, which is under the sponsorship of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Company and the Ghana Social Marketing Foundation(GSMF), volunteers went round churches, social meetings, abattoirs, schools and other recognised gatherings to give education on early detection of symptoms and how to respond accordingly.
The first phase of the programme which had been completed saw the volunteers visiting the Asokwa, Bantama and Subin sub-metros.
According to Mr Mike Owusu, Coordinator of the project, the organisation decided on malarial control as one of its key areas of operation because of the untold hardships that the disease brought to the people.
He noted that most often, pregnant women and children were at the receiving end of the disease and pledged that the organisation with support from its sponsors would continue to channel more resources to that area.
Mr Owusu advised the people to observe hygienic conditions as a way of minimising the impact of the disease.
He also mentioned a programme about HIV and AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STIs) programme, which the organisation was undertaking in junior and senior high schools in the metropolis and said the interest in the exercise was growing.
Mr Owusu said the goal of the education programme was to build on the information students already had about HIV and AIDS and other STIs and encourage them to adopt the best practices for reducing the risk of STI transmission and teenage pregnancy.
According to him, particular emphasis was placed on abstinence because that was the surest way to keep students safe.
Mr Owusu indicated that the health education programme was being undertaken in cooperation with the Kumasi Metropolitan Directorate of Health.

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