Atua-Manya Krobo, (E/R), Mr. Christopher Mensah-Chrismek, Executive Director of Humanitarian Action Network (HANET), an NGO has condemned the attitude of some directors of NGOs in the country for pocketing monies, which should have been given to peer educators. He said this attitude is very bad since it has the potential to damp the spirit of peer educators who play significant roles in the fight against the deadly pandemic HIV/AIDS.

Mr. Mensah-Chismek said this on Saturday at an awareness and sensitisation programme organized by Eco-Habitat Development Society (ECOHAB), also an NGO for the Chief and people of Atua in the Manya Krobo District of the Eastern Region. The donor community, in collaboration with the Ghana AIDS Response Fund provided funding for the programme He said some of these officials claim the peer educators are mere volunteers and need not to be paid but at the same time go back to the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) and other donor agencies to collect monies and pocket them.

He called on the GAC and the donor community to put a mechanism in place to ensure that monies collected from their outfit for the intended purposes get to the right people. He said sanctions should also be imposed on such offenders to serve as deterrent to other NGOs in the country. Mr Mensah Chrismek also noted that previously, the Yilo and Manya Krobo Districts were leading the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country but due to the intense campaign mounted by the various NGOs in the area, it has reduced drastically.

According to him, the most effective way to further reduce the HIV/AIDS disease in the area would be the house-to-house or one-on one-campaign strategy. Ms. Theophilia Narh, President of ECOHAB said the focus of the NGO's are in the areas of human development, especially poverty alleviation, HIV/AIDS prevention, agro-forestry, human rights and promoting tourism in communities. He said: "because the people are poor, if you want to tackle HIV/AIDS problem in the area without looking at the poverty level, it would not succeed."

She said ECOHAB is also in collaboration with other NGOs on capacity-building through training and seminars to help reduce duplication of efforts and resources.