Guru: Education key to reducing HIV/AIDS

By AGNES FIFI UKI
EDUCATION is the only solution to reduce the HIV/AIDS rate in Papua New Guinea, Dr Anuradha Guru says.
Guru, who teaches chemistry at the Port Moresby International School, has appealed to schools to provide their students with information about HIV/AIDS.
Her school was in its third day of a four-day HIV/AIDS awareness programme yesterday.
Guru said it was vital for students to know in-depth information about HIV/AIDS as they moved on with their education and life.
The teacher organising the programme at the school, Catherine Levi, said this was the second time such awareness to educate teachers and students was held at the school.
The week-long programme dealing with the HIV/AIDS linked to the social issues of today is being held in conjunction with fund-raising activities to help raise money for the French Foundation to support its work in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Levi said some students might know people or relatives affected by HIV/AIDS but continued to ignore them. This awareness programme will help them to take care of such people.
“We also celebrate world AIDS Day which is on Dec 1, but this one day is not enough to deliver effective information to our students, so we have organised this week-long awareness,” Levi said.
The students are being divided in two groups of boys and girls so they can have male and female speakers in order to open up for free discussions.
The senior marketing officer from the National AIDS Council Secretariat, Nick Ganai, who was one of the guests, said it was the first programme of its kind in a school.