Agona Swedru, April 29, GNA - The Agona District Assembly has set up a task force to check the misapplication of grants provided for non-governmental and community based organisations by the Ghana AIDS Response Fund (GARfund) towards HIV/AIDS education programmes.

Mr. John Kwesi Agyabeng, District Chief Executive, who announced this at an orientation workshop for leaders of eight community based organisations (CBOs) that benefited from the second tranche of the GARfund for the district cautioned the leaders to use the monies strictly for the purpose for which they were provided.

He said their continued access to the GARfund would depend on how successfully they executed their programmes.

Mr. GBL Siilo, District Co-ordinating Director, said HIV/AIDS posed the greatest challenge to the survival of mankind and advised people and organisations engaged in the fight against the disease to work hard to reduce its spread.

He urged them to strictly follow the proposals they submitted to the Ghana AIDS Commission.

Mr. Richard Ziork, District HIV/AIDS Monitoring and Evaluation Focal Person said the district had received 125 million cedis as a second tranche to be shared among the eight CBOs for their programmes. He urged the CBOs to focus attention on addressing the problem of stigmatisation and discrimination, which he said accelerated the death of people living with the disease. 29 April 04