Kumasi, Aug. 06, GNA - Mr. Ahmed Dery, National programmes Director of the Muslim Family Counselling Services (MFCS), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has called on school authorities to get actively involved in the anti-HIV/AIDS initiated programmes being implemented by NGOs and the Ghana Education Service (GES). He said this was very crucial because their enhanced participation and engagement of teachers in HIV/AIDS programme could sustain such initiative to help confront the disease holistically. Mr Dery was speaking at a forum organised by the organisation to honour 124 Youth Peer Educators in Ashanti region who are participating in a Strengthening HIV/AIDS Partnership Education (SHAPE II) Project in Kumasi on Saturday.

The project is being executed by the Ashanti regional branch of the organisation in collaboration with World Education, Ghana, with support from the GES.

He indicated that the HIV/AIDS menace had assumed an alarming proportion so much that the situation calls for a multi-sectoral response to combat the menace. Mr Dery announced that an award ceremony would be organised in 2007 to honour the best teacher, peer educator and school at the primary, junior and senior secondary school levels in the SHAPE II project.

Mr Hafiz Abubakar, Senior Field Officer of the project, said the purpose of the certification and award ceremony was to recognise the efforts and positive involvement of the educators in the project. He also said the student-peer educators were trained in HIV/AIDS, assertive and sex-negotiation skills, self-esteem development, abstinence skills and adolescent reproductive health issues. Alhaji Bun Bida, Ashanti Regional Programmes Manager of the MFCS, told the educators not to be complacent with the honour done them but should work harder to combat the disease.

Mr George Ankoma-Yeboah, Youth Development Officer of the National Youth Council (NYC), commended the organisation for effective management of series of youth-oriented empowerment projects in the region. He, however, charged them to widen their activities to cover other youth in other districts in the region to ensure equitable distribution of their services.