Not happy at all with Aust govt’s decision

Letters

THE news break about the Australian government’s decision to cease funding for HIV/AIDS prevention in PNG is questionable.
The nature of the decision is unknown to most of the people where people are speculating reasons behind this huge funding cut.
The Australians have been very supportive over the past years which have seen many people in Papua
New Guinea benefitting, especially the people living with HIV and AIDS.
Now with this funding issue, many of the people who are the receivers of the HIV services (condom, testing and antiretroviral – ART – drugs) will be vulnerable to any other opportunistic infections and even death.
The decision to cease funding HIV/AIDS in PNG is now a very challenging issue to us especially the government and the respective stakeholders.
The reasons are unknown and many assume it could be political issue or inefficient implementation and reporting by the grant receivers or programme implementers.
If it is politically related, then the onus is now with the PNG Government to solve it.
However, if it is to do with programme implementation and reporting, then the onus is on the Government to rectify the situation.
It is up to the government and the respective authorities to come up with some strategic solutions to put PNG back on the track to fight against this epidemic for better, healthy PNG society.

Sky Bobeng, Via email