Entertainment of Friday, 29 October 2004

Source: GNA

NGO launches comic CD to boost anti HIV/AIDS campaign

Accra, Oct. 29, GNA - Ghana Information Network of Knowledge Sharing (GINKS), a Non Governmental Organization, on Thursday launched an HIV/AIDS comic CDROM titled: "AIDS the Ultimate Killer", as part of the national campaign to reduce the spread of the disease and build up a healthier youth for development.

The comic CDROM, which targets students, is a unique and innovative product seeking to reach out to the youth with the AIDS preventive message through the channel of entertainment, the organization said at the launch in Accra.

The CD plays a compelling story of how the deadly AIDS disease lives to kill and how no human is safe around it. It also tells ways to avoid the disease.

Speaking at the launch, Mrs. Korantemaa Adi Dako, chairperson of GINKS, said the innovation was based on the need to reach the young and vulnerable with a more attractive package in order to step up attitudinal change being sought by HIV/AIDS preventive messages. Mrs. Adi Dako said it was the hope of GINKS that the CD would also generate interest among the youth to use the computer, thereby bolstering government's efforts to increase computer literacy under its broader Information Communication Technology policy.

Mr. Isaac Ofei, who represented the country Director of UNAIDS at the launch, lauded the creativity of GINKS in innovating the CD package. He expressed the hope that students using the various Science Resource Centres dotted around the country would not only enjoy the comic aspect of the package but would be educated as well. Mr. George Sylvester, who designed the CD, said the idea for the innovation started about two years ago and expressed the hope that the concept would bring about the desired behavioural change among the youth.