By Our Correspondent
Sierra Leone’s National Aids Secretariat(NAS) has in recent days and weeks revamped its campaign in involving the country’s traditional rulers in the fight against the AIDS pandemic.
NAS has been been organizing workshops and seminars in all parts of the country, educating traditional rulers (tribal headmen and chiefs) on the causes of AIDS and its prevention. The knowledge the chiefs gain, the secretariat hopes,will be passed on to the grassroots and rural folks, most of whom are illiterate.
"It’s a process of teaching the teachers", a source at the secretariat told the Vanguard.
The most recent workshop or clinic organized by the secretariat is in Freetown in which the heads of the various ethnic groups in the capital were brought together to be sensitised about the ravages of AIDS, a disease which is gradually spreading in the country with 20 cases discovered each day, according to a secretariat official.
AIDS in Sierra Leone is usually linked with the decade-long rebel war that devastated most parts of the country in addition to massive loss of lives estimated at over 50,000. The war also produced extreme poverty, thousands of infected combatants(army, rebels, militias) and caused the deployment of thousands of peacekeepers from the sub-region and elsewhere some of whom were later discovered to be HIV positive. Female Genital Mutilation(FGM) and prostitution are also serious causes.
Statistics on AIDS in Sierra Leone, like in other extremely poor countries, cannot be totally accurate due to the constant movement of people and the limited resources of the secretariat itself, but they give an idea of the critical nature of the problem.
The National AIDS secretariat in Sierra Leone is headed by Dr. Brima Kargbo and it is closely linked with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation headed by Abator Thomas.
Photo: Interior minister Siddique Brima, speaking at a workshop.
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