Obuasi, Oct. 14, GNA - Obuasi Municipal Assembly is collaborating with some non-governmental organisations (NGO) to achieve zero percent HIV and AIDS prevalence rate in the municipality. Mr John Alexander Ackon, Municipal Chief Executive, who made this known in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, said the prevalence rate of the virus stood at 2.8 per cent.

He said although it was a positive achievement: "We (Assembly) need to reach zero per cent prevalence rate." Mr Ackon was speaking at the launch of Achievement, Innovative, Sustainable, Leadership and Endowment (AIESEC) programme of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Answers, Solutions and Knowledge (ASK) around HIV and AIDS project for students in 10 Junior High Schools (JHS) in Obuasi.

AIESEC is an international platform for young people to discuss and develop their potentials and make positive impact on society. Mr Ackon said the major problem was how to fight the stigma associated with People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs), describing it as "a psychological warfare".

"We need to find answers, solution and knowledge about the stigma since it is wrong for society to stigmatise people living with the pandemic." He said the ASK project implied that the municipality was making the necessary and conscious efforts to fight the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Launching the project, Mr Philip Adjei, Executive Director of PAGA International Foundation, an NGO said the HIV/AIDS pandemic continued to contribute to household vulnerability and poverty and there was the need to intensify efforts to alleviate it, alongside targeted prevention activities. He therefore called for the mainstreaming of HIV and AIDS response at all levels as well as the strengthening of national associations of the PLWHAs and the expansion of treatment and care to help reduce the level of poverty and pain.

"More technical and financial support should be provided in training the media on the disease so that accurate reports could be put to the public domain for those infected to win public sympathy and support", Mr Adjei added.

Mr Bertrand Baazeng Boosung, President of AIESEC, KNUST branch, said AIESEC said the ASK project was aimed at training the youth to be peer educators on HIV and AIDS. He said 300 students from the 10 JHS would benefit from the training. 14 Oct. 09