Future HIV youth debate will take two days: Barter

THE National HIV Youth Debate will be staged annually and it will be over two days.
Chairman of the National AIDS Council, Sir Peter Barter, said this was necessary because the issues were critical to the development of the country.
He said the additional day was necessary as time was tight for the inaugural debate held for one day at the Divine Word University campus in Madang on June 23.
Sir Peter also praised the students from the six national universities that took part, saying it was encouraging to see students taking a keen interest in debating a national issue such as HIV.
The debate saw the universities fielding two teams each to challenge each other in a knock out competition.
DWU and Pacific Adventist University (PAU) eventually fought out the grand final at the  SVD memorial auditorium which was packed.
PAU edged out DWU in a close contest.
Sir Peter said while the debaters did their best, they needed to do more research and talk about all aspects of HIV/AIDS issue in the country.
Sir Peter said the debaters spoke little about the HIV testing centres, the availability of anti-retroviral therapy (ART), the work of organisations like Business Coalition Against HIV/AIDS (BAHA) and positive living among other topics.
The 2010 Nature’s Own National HIV Youth Debate was an initiative of Sir Peter and was sponsored by Coca-Cola Amatil (who received the naming right with one of its products – Nature’s Own), AusAID, PNG Institute of Medical Research, Madang Resort Hotel, Nasfund, Barrick Gold Ltd, Ramu NiCo Management Ltd, Westpac Bank, Divine Word University, UNAIDS, UNDP and National AIDS Council Secretariat.