AIDS awareness in Southern Highlands gets positive response

 By YVONNE HAIP

THE fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Southern Highlands is having a great impact on the communities as people are now more involved, the provincial AIDS council (PAC) said.

Council response coordinator Henry Hapen said programmes were being conducted in rural areas and more people were now speaking openly about HIV/AIDS.

He said the people were discussing condoms and sex openly, especially in areas like Tari where talking about such issues used to be taboo.

Hapen said people were realising that HIV/AIDS was everyone’s business as far as its 

spread and prevention were concerned.

He said business houses, churches and other organisations had been working with PAC to make the programme a success.

The council planned to establish more voluntary counselling and testing centres in the districts 

and provide capacity-building through support and training.

So far, there are 16 centres, five antiretroviral treatment sites, 24 community and church-based organisations and two international NGOs  working with the council.

He said companies in the province such as Curtain Brothers and Oil Search played a major role in creating awareness to address the epidemic.

Because of the collective efforts of stakeholders, he said all goals were being achieved and the issue was being addressed.

Hapen said because of the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS being taken into the rural areas, more people from those areas were going for voluntary testing.