Money needed to fight HIV

ONE of the concerns raised by church leaders this week was the lack of funds to address issues faced by the increasing number of people living with HIV, Cardinal Sir John Ribat says.
He is the chairman of Christian Leaders Alliance on HIV/AIDS .
The issues raised and recommendations made by the summit of church leaders in Port Moresby discussing HIV/AIDS were handed over to the Minister for Health Michael Malabag yesterday.
When presenting the recommendations to the minister, Cardinal Ribat said among the many issues that the church leaders came up with was the structure of how funding would be distributed and made available directly to churches.
Upon receiving the recommendations, Malabag acknowledged the church leaders for their holistic approach on HIV/AIDS.
The government had stepped in to address important health issues such as HIV and ensure that these were captured in policy documents and long-term development plans, he told the church leaders.
Malabag said the National HIV Strategy 2018-2022 was carefully planned to give a stronger response to gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV-related issues.
He further added that the key target for 2020 was to have nil HIV infection in children.