Chiraa (B/A) Feb 15, GNA - The Seventh-day Adventist Church has called on the Ghana AIDS Commission to organize a workshop for presenters of FM radio stations so they could design programmes to prevent increased promiscuity among the youth.

Pastor James Kwaku Badu, President of Mid-West Conference of the Church made the call at the weekend at Chiraa in Brong Ahafo when addressing about 300 participants at an HIV/AIDS forum organized by the Conference and sponsored by the Commission.

The programme was the fifth in a series of the Conference's HIV/AIDS outreach programme started in May last year to cover 30 communities within the administrative area of the Conference. Pastor Badu blamed some radio presenters for the high rate of immoral behaviour amongst the youth, saying the utterances and programmes of some social commentators and the presenters tended to encourage the youth to indulge in promiscuity and other negative lifestyles.

He cited the Valentine Day programmes and said instead of educating the youth to lead morally upright lives, radio presenters and the social commentators rather whetted their appetite for practices that society spoke against.

Pastor Badu said the SDA Church was using floats, film shows and durbars in the HIV/AIDS Outreach Project to create awareness among target groups on how to avoid the pandemic.

The Church has trained 30 educators to steer the programme, he said, adding that so far the programme had covered Apesika, Jema, Yamfo, Tanoso and Bomaa in the region.

Mr. Ibrahim Kwaku Acheampong, Brong-Ahafo Regional Focal Person on HIV/AIDS announced that 9,023 persons had been tested positive of the pandemic in the region since 1986 when the disease was officially identified in the country.

He added that from January to December last year, 1,832 people were recorded to be living with the pandemic in the region.

Mr. Augustine Peprah, Focal Person of HIV/AIDS at the Sunyani Municipal Assembly said abstinence was the best method to prevent contracting HIV/AIDS.

He listed a number of benefits one could gain for voluntarily undergoing test for the pandemic to enable an affected person to get the needed expert advice regarding diet and other issues.

"The affected person could also become committed to God, since he or she would use the last period of life to pray to God to be offered a place in Heaven," he added.