mdg8, National College “B.P.Hasdeu”, Romania (teachers Luminita Popescu , Dana Trocaru) Question:
What is the government in your country doing to combat HIV/Aids?
- How is your government raising awareness of HIV/Aids?
- Has there been improved action in the last ten years, and in what ways?
- How are HIV/Aids sufferers supported in your area?
- Could it do more?
MDG8 team
Answer from mdg1
XXX
Answer from mdg2
The government of Kenya has declared “war” on HIV/Aids. It is conducting HIV/Aids awareness through social workers. These people have been employed to talk to communities on the issue of HIV/ AIDS to demystify the disease. They give talks and have open forums for question and answers. In the rural areas this happens within local administration and other community development forums. They even visit homes where there could be Aids victims and offer advice on health and nutrition.
It encourages Peer Education projects where some youth are trained and then they go out to reach to their fellow youth;
Schools is another place where the young generation is made aware of HIV/AIDS
The media is one powerful way of creating awareness. Through this, people are advised about how to avoid the disease and how to live a healthy life in case one is diagnosed with HIV/Aids
Support
There are VCT centers where free counseling and testing for HIV happens.
Providing Anti Retroviral medicines for people who have tested positive. These medicines are otherwise quite expensive and out of reach for most people. Healthy lifestyles and nutrition is encouraged for those who have tested positive.
There is no discrimination on the basis of HIV/Aids. Victims feel free to come out in the open to talk about the issue and advice those affected to seek help and those that are healthy to steer free from circumstances that could lead to contracting HIV and Aids.
The government can still do more. We believe there is always a better way of doing something. With extra resources and wider education, even more people can be reached and assisted. Most importantly, the problem would have been reduced and on the way to eradicate it completely.
Answer from mdg3
Question
What is the government in your country doing to combat HIV/Aids?
- How is your government raising awareness of HIV/Aids?
- Has there been improved action in the last ten years, and in what ways?
- How are HIV/Aids sufferers supported in your area?
- Could it do more?
Action of the government to combat HIV/Aids.
1. By use of the media
The media, being a major tunnel of combating HIV/Aids, has cut down the rate at which the disease spreads. These include radio stations and the television stations. Furthermore, social sites have contributed to raising awareness in the country
2. introduction of the free VCT
Voluntary counseling and testing centers have been put up by the government where citizens test themselves free of charge and they are also counseled
3. free circumcision
to avoid the spread of the disease, the government has decided to provide free circumcision In the government hospitals unlike traditional where only one knife is used and thus a high risk of spread of the disease.
4. Free ARVs
Patients who suffer from the diseases are offered free medication like the ARVs which are expensive for a normal mwanannchi (citizen)
5. Counseling services to the youth
The government has organized counseling services to the youth especially in learning institutions like primary and high schools, colleges and universities. The youth are cautioned on effects of HIV/AIDS at personal level, family level and even the National level.
How the government is raising awareness of HIV/Aids
The Kenyan government creates awareness of the disease many ways like:
- Using the media; the government has funded for the advertisement about HIV/Aids. it has also helped in creation of the education programs that talk of HIV/Aids
- Organizing of seminars; seminars have been called by the government to discuss of HIV/Aids most of which have been attended by the youth who are at a high risk of getting the infectious disease
- The government has funded the buying the A.R.VS.which fight the disease. These drugs have been distributed at no cost (free of charge) to the victims.
- Our government has set up VCT Centers to test and counsel the patients thus giving them hope for the future.
Improvement in Kenya in the last ten years
The various ways set up have assisted in the control and combating of HIV/Aids by 40% from the year 2001 by the ways stated below:
- Drugs bought by the government have reduced the effect of the disease on the people reducing the mortality rate
- Awareness has enlighten Kenyans who never knew of the disease and brightened those who never understood it well
- The people who visit the VCT centers have got to know their status and have made plans and hope for the future
How HIV sufferers are supported in Kenya
HIV/AIDS victims have been Suffering much but currently the world has been enlightened not to abandon them but help them in their lives .this ways include;
- HIV victims have not been isolated as in the past but have been accepted in the society to live with others
- They are offered essential needs and are also protected from any kind of harm
- They are encouraged and given hopes so that they can be motivated
- Victims of the disease are given the first priority in everything
- They are also offered with free services which they are not suppose to pay for
- They are subjected to free medical check-up unlike the past
mdg3, Kenya, Chavakali High School
Answer from mdg4
Eliza_Liva_.pdf
Answer from mdg5
The government of Canada has not done its fair share to fight HIV/Aids. HIV/Aids is a catastrophic disease that affects the lives of millions of people, but in North America, it is not too great of a problem. Almost 5,000 people per day are diagnosed with HIV in the world and in 2009, 33.3 million people were living with HIV/Aids. AIDS is the leading cause of death in Sub- Saharan Africa, and the fourth leading cause of death globally. But in North America, the number of HIV/ Aids sufferers is very small compared to other continents, so it is not a big problem that our government and citizens act upon. So the question is, does Canada do enough to help in the Global fight of HIV/ AIDS?
HIV/ AIDS is spreading rapidly across the world, and there is still no cure. Many countries’ governments have stepped up and rose to the occasion, joining in to find a cure for HIV/ Aids. Canada’s government is not one of the countries who have rose the occasion. Out of 10 other countries, Canada is eight in total donations to the cause of HIV/ Aids. But, the citizens are more aware and take more action against the epidemic than the government. Canada participates in International Aids Day, and hundreds of thousands of people participate, spreading their word about the world wide epidemic. Canadian citizens truly believe there is a cure and will always help in raising donations for the deadly disease. We as Canadian citizens need to pressure the government to donate more to HIV/ Aids. With the citizens’ pressure, the government will be pressured to do their part in the fight against HIV/ AIDS. One day, with the help of the global countries; we WILL find a cure for HIV/ AIDS.
Answer from mdg6
Around the world, there are about 35 million living with AIDS/HIV. About 68 000 are Canadian citizens. The Canadian government has funds and research projects for an HIV/AIDS vaccine and treatment. Moreover, the government also publicizes AIDS awareness such as International AIDS day and National AIDS Awareness Week. These past 10 years, there are been alterations to the middle school health curriculum to enforce healthy relationships. The University of Western Ontario has recently been approved to start clinical trials for their new, innovative AIDS vaccine. If successful, Canada can use the vaccine for needy patients across the country and sell it to foreign countries. AIDS sufferers in Toronto are well supported. There is universal health care to cover most of the medical expenses; additionally, there are help groups such as the Canadian AIDS society and the AIDS committee of Toronto. Unfortunately, AIDS exposure and medical care across the globe needs much more improvement. There needs to be more urgency for AIDS awareness.
Answer from mdg7
This is quite a difficult question for us to answer since we do not have information on this subject. We hear about this topic on TV from time to time and we realize it is a serious problem (to say the least).
We know that the government and the Health Ministry are organising campaigns in order to raise people’s awareness about it. The situation was extremely bad before 1989 and maybe even worse in the years that followed this date, probably as a result of the uncertain political situation which, in a way that is impossible to understand, made some people, who were working in the health system, act irresponsibly towards certain patients - they use improper medical equipment or even reused it. That is a horrible thing to do – this is what we believe today. But has the situation changed? Let’s think about all the debates around the situation of cancer patients today. Has the society changed? Is it really trying to cure people or at least try to make them feel better?
Here are some facts about this issue that we found on the Internet:
"A Reason for Joy," produced by RedHawk Communications in conjunction with the Government of Romania and Merck & Co., Inc., features interviews with, among others, Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS, Romanian President Ion Iliescu, Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, and Scott Evertz, Special Assistant to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
BUCHAREST, Romania, December 1 /PRN 'A Reason for Joy: Success against HIV/AIDS in Romania' Features Commentary From President Ion Iliescu, Dr. Peter Piot, Fmr. Sec. of State Madeleine
Romanian volunteers dance at the Gara de Nord railway station during a flash mob, a day before World AIDS Day in downtown Bucharest, Nov. 30, 2011. According to the Romanian National Union of HIV Infested Persons (UNOPA), over 10, 000 people lived with HIV in Romania, among them 7,000 are young people who were infected in 1988-1990, victims of the Communist-era health care system
Romanian volunteers hold hands to form a red ribbon during a flash-mob in downtown Bucharest, Nov. 29, 2011 to mark World AIDS Day. In Romania over 10,000 people are living with HIV. Seven thousand are young people.
Answer from mdg9
GTP Report AIDS.docx
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.