Wa, Jan. 09, GNA- The Wa Polytechnic has developed an

HIV/AIDS Policy Framework with financial support from the World

Bank under the Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TALIF) to

help create awareness of the disease among its 800 students and 80

staff. It would also educate about 1,000 residents in the neighbouring

communities about HIV/AIDS and persuade them to embrace the; "I

choose life" concept that the Polytechnic had adopted to help stem

the spread of the disease. Mr. Solomon A. Dansieh, Vice Rector of the Polytechnic made

these known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in

Wa on Thursday. He said, part of the fund had been used by the Management

Studies Department to implement a project on awareness creation,

with the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology

(SIAST) from Canada providing the expertise. Mr. Dansieh, who is also the Project Organiser said the

Polytechnic had established an HIV/AIDS Committee and a Campus

Club to sustain activities of the programme. He said the pandemic had become a global issue, and current

prevalence rates were higher among the youth. Mr. Dansieh said the Wa Polytechnic has no hostel facilities and

that, students had to look elsewhere for their own accommodation in

the communities, a situation which exposed them to, not only

extortion by landlords, but also all the perils and temptations that

could make them vulnerable to the pandemic. He said the Polytechnic had therefore, developed a policy

framework to help educate the students to adopt appropriate

lifestyles to secure themselves from the disease. The Polytechnic authorities in collaboration with the Upper West

Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) and the Ghana Health

Services had carried out an HIV/AIDS voluntary testing and

counselling exercise among the students. A surveillance exercise had also been conducted by the Regional

Health Directorate for the students. Mr. Dansieh said the Ghana AIDS Commission had also assisted

the Polytechnic with funds under its Multi-Sectoral HIV/AIDS sub

project, part of which had been used to sensitise the people of

Kongu, a community three kilometres from the Polytechnic, on

HIV/AIDS. He said such sensitization campaigns had been beneficial as many

people in the communities had now accepted voluntary counselling

and testing. Mr. Dansieh said an HIV/AIDS Counselling Centre would also be

established on campus, while billboards with HIV/AIDS messages

would be mounted at strategic points to create indelible pictures of

realities of the pandemic on the minds of the students, staff and the

public.