ENB official: Be proactive towards epidemic

GENDER issues in society do not necessarily mean women are the cause of all social problems in our communities, a senior public servant says.
East New Britain director of corporate affairs Ephreddie Jubilee said gender violence tended to be a prerequisite to HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STI) and men ignored the fact that they contributed immensely to the prevalence of infections.
Jubilee was addressing a presentation last week by Stephanie Lusby, an Australian university doctorate candidate, who is using ENB as a case study of HIV/AIDS and
STI.
She called for understanding among all sectors of the community and to be proactive towards the epidemic.
She said that while the provincial budget theme of growing the local economy promoted gender equality, it also promoted equal opportunities for local entrepreneurship and people of East New Britain needed to be healthy in order to be
productive.
Jubilee said that despite HIV/AIDS and STI as cross-cutting issues, people could rationalise to be on the safer path of positive living.
She said although Lusby did not have the opportunity to provide data, the presentation was considered to be important to all stakeholders and appropriate intervention could be strategised from their setting.
Jubilee emphasised the need for aggressive awareness on the issue of gender and consequences of social problems in the communities pledging for more interaction and importantly sharing of information.